Sburb Update Patch
by sinfulnature1123
Summary: I want to write this so it is accessible to people who did or didn't read Homestuck. It's just twelve characters playing the game Sburb (a reality warping, super power granting, destiny fulfilling game that generates its own universe) as it was meant to be played without access fuckery from cosmic beings. Lemons for the story will be posted in a separate story for convenience.
1. Chapter 1

**Okay, first, some cursory information. I wasn't actually going to start this story, as I figured I should finish my current stories and do a drabble vote, but I figured that between my burn out writing Yugioh Sex Monsters and Hiveswap being released, I figure now's a better time than any what with the fandom waking up like some great and terrible elder god from the shadow dimension.**

 **As I said in the summary, you shouldn't need to know much about Homestuck to be able to enjoy this, as the majority of everything will be explained, plus in order to streamline things, a little bit is going to be edited. The only thing I can't explain in the story without it being super obvious and cringey exposition is the troll romance. I figure I'll explain it now for two reasons: it was explained with essentially an AN in the actual webcomic, and since I'm going be to altering what they are slightly, both Homestuck fans and newbies alike should hear this.**

 **The basic idea is that there are four different kinds of romantic love, each with an associated color and symbol. Red love, associated with the heart, is basically everything you think of normal romantic love.**

 **Black love, associated with the spade, is a hateful romance with a rival or even a full on enemy who has just enough positive traits that you want to like them, but just can't because of their negatives. If the feeling is mutual, the result is spicy hate sex.**

 **Pale love, associated with the diamond, is less passionate than the others, to the point that it could be confused for just really good friendship. Two people who need help in their own lives pair bond and help each other get through life. In canon it was never anything more than that, but I maintain that sex can be apart of it as a means of stress relief and affection, just nothing more than that, and it isn't mandatory.**

 **Finally is ashen love, associated with the club. This is a three person relationship, typically resulting from a blackrom relationship that's gone too far into the dangerous end of the spectrum and needs someone to step in and settle them down. Yes, I'm also implying that ashrom can be sexual between all three participants, for the same reasons as pale.**

 **There, now Homestuck readers know what I'm doing and non-Homestuck readers understand what any of this is. Now allow me to address the Homestuck readers quickly before I get to the story: I already know what all twelve of the character's classpects are, and what they're all a symbol of. I want to see if anyone can guess it for the different characters before it's actually said in the story. There's your challenge, let's see how many of you can get it~**

 **Alrighty, now let's start what will likely be one of my longest stories ever!**

* * *

Brendon Morisum got up from his bed, wondering if today he and the others would finally be playing 'the GAME' as the others all addressed it. He wasn't sure why so many of the others were so antsy about it. It did sound cool, true, actual virtual reality, but his friends/acquaintances weren't just showing excitement. Some of them seemed almost.. worried. Oh well, it isn't like he didn't already know they were weird. Then again, he supposed the world they lived in was itself generally weird to begin with.

Brendon lived right at the edge of the human kingdom, his house so close to the boarder of the troll kingdom that more than once he'd seen trolls walk passed his house before recognizing they were in the wrong kingdom altogether. He wondered why the different locations had even been named 'kingdoms' in the first place if there was no king and they were directly next to each other. He guessed the Creators had just thought it sounded cool back when they'd appeared generations ago.

They were all gone now. In fact the last of them had died just a few years back saving the earth from a planet buster. What exactly the planet buster had been was still unknown, but with all of the Creators gone, humans, trolls, consorts, and carapacians had been left to lead themselves. He'd had to learn in school about how long ago, the species lived on different worlds.

Trolls, the grey skinned, striped horned humanoids with different blood colors that determined what powers they could have and where they were in the class structure had lived on a planet called Alternia. Granted, the blood color class system had been strictly outlawed on earth by the Creators. Some still tried to follow it, just out of instinct, but a personal heart rending and ear maiming lecture screamed from one of the Creators put an end to that real fucking fast.

The Consorts were supposedly the anthropomorphic crocodiles, salamanders, iguana, and turtles that were from.. somewhere. Where exactly was unknown to history, but considering the trolls being aliens, it wasn't hard to assume they were from another planet. His reasoning for thinking that that's 'supposedly' what they were was the that he'd never seen them. The human kingdom, or at least his part of it, was just far enough away that he'd never had to interact with them. And from what some of his friends said about them, he wasn't missing much.

Finally was the carapace kingdom, home to people that looked remarkably like chess pieces. Some were white as snow, others black a ink, all had hard, carapace like skin; hence the name. Some seemed to identify as 'Dersites' or 'Prospitans', but not even they seemed to know why they did this. 'Tradition' they claimed, terms passed down from the old days. What old days they meant were unknown to anyone still alive.

Stretching out as he stood, Brendon checked his inventory. The technical terms were fetch modus for normal items, and strife specibus for weapons, but he liked to use the word 'inventory' because it was just more convenient, and it pissed off his Kismesis which was always a plus. He used wallet modus, which was, in his opinion, the best kind of fetch modus. No need to solve puzzles or remember codes. Just open it and take something out or put something in. Plus it could contain a shocking amount of stuff. He could hold a car inside of it if he wanted.

He had two kinds of weapons in his strife deck. He'd started with just axe-kind, as people needed wood cut and were willing to pay money to have someone else split it for them, hence your only having a simple wood cutting axe in it. You had also gotten shotgun-kind the moment he'd been old enough. He'd never been in any kind of danger that would actually require a weapon of that kind, and had never actually fired the very basic shotgun he'd been allowed to get, and didn't even had it loaded, but he loved the idea of the weapon, probably because he had a thing for mafia stories.

There may or may not have been a poster of 'The Midnight Crew' , the most famous gang in history (in his personal opinion at least) in his room complete with had carve figures of all four members, but the only person who'd ever been in his room to know about them was sworn to secrecy, and there were some lines not even pitch lovers crossed.

Speaking of which, he could see his computer light going off in response to him receiving messages on PesterChum, a chat website that he estimated to be slightly older than God, but that his friends had convinced him to start using. Well, more like one friend who was the mutual friend of everyone else had convinced them all to use it. He had to admit, while he was pretty sure they were the only ones on the planet actually using the sight, it did seem to deliver messages faster than any other method available; which was saying a lot.

He went over, figuring she might have messaged him. It wasn't exactly her style, she was more of a 'bonsai tackle' kinda girl, but she did occasionally message him; usually to let him know she'd stored some more of her crap in his house while he'd been asleep. He still had no idea how the hell she got in and out of his house so easily when she was the most accident prone, hippo footed clutz he'd ever seen whenever he was actually seeing her. He half suspected she was just pratfalling to keep him fooled.

Upon opening up the sight though, he saw that he only had messaged from Jeff, Dustine, and Mutosi, known respectively as DecaTective, Chil4Dayz, and MighWay online. He logged in as FamiliaSyndicatior and looked at the messages that had piled up in front of him. It seemed Jeff was trying once again to keep the peace in the middle of an argument. They did indeed have a mutual friend capable of such a friend, but Jeff was not that mutual friend.

 **MW: No, Fuck this, I'm done, Get bent assholes,**

 **DT: He didn't even say anything about you, he was just mentioning your culture.**

 **CD: Truth, your ancestors were all the fuck out of whack. Either slaves or slavers, not your fault, just saying you know?**

 **MW: Eat, Shit,**

 **FS: Okay, not that I'm on her side or anything, but I thought we agreed to not mention troll culture around her.**

 **MW: Why specifically not around me?,**

 **CD: 'Cause you got that rustblood complex girl.**

 **MW: The fuck d'you just call me?!,**

 **DT: He is not making fun of you. All he did was mention for the record your blood color. He only brought up the history because you got onto him for saying 'rush blood' earlier, when that hasn't even been an insult in, like, three generations now?**

 **MW: Well I still don't fucking like it!,**

 **FS: Some one wanna tell me how this conversation started?**

 **CD: DT was just trying to tell us about the game.**

 **FS:... someone wanna tell me how the hell you got from that to talks over whether or not CD is a racist?**

 **DT: Please, trying to work backwards like that will only leave you with two things: Fuck all and a migraine.**

 **MW: Bite me,**

 **FS: Well, if I may attempt to derail the argument, what about the game?**

 **DT: Oh right, I've got everyone's copies out. We can start playing later today, just as soon as I'm sure everyone has theirs. I've still got to work out who the team leaders will be.**

 **MW: About that, You never said anything about team leaders until today, I thought this was gonna be a free for all,**

 **DT: No, it'll be two teams of six, and the team leaders get to decide the teams.**

 **MW: Well I can fucking guess that you'll be one of the team leaders, What'll it take to make me the other?**

 **CD: *cough* slut *cough***

 **MW: I will kick your dick in with telekinesis.**

 **FS: MW, save the spade flirting for LS, CD, stop egging on, DT, either get OP on here or say what you need to say quickly.**

 **DT: Well, I know that the two teams are essentially meant to be role playing as the 'hero' and 'villain' teams. I know I'm not the team leader, and I don't know who they'll be. I'm not actually deciding.**

 **MW: Then who is?,**

 **DT: Secret.**

 **FS: Oh hell he's talking to them again. You promised you'd stop with that after they nearly walked you off a cliff.**

 **DT: Okay, I've explained this to you already, that was someone else using their account. I wouldn't have even found the game if not for them, so yes, I'm talking to them and they're gonna tell me who the team leaders are.**

 **MW: And since none of us know who they are or if they're even real, I look forward to finding out how you ended up team leader,**

 **DT: No, one of the few things they were able to tell me so far is that I wouldn't be a team leader, which is kind of a relief if I'm honest.**

 **MW: Whatever, I'm out. [MighWay has left the chat** **]**

 **CD: Fuck she's grouchie, why you think that is?**

 **FS: She's pitch for your redrom, so you're basically her rival.**

 **CD: :/ / / me and LS aren't really a think.. like, on our best day pale maybe? Even if I did have a thing for him, I don't really think he's into humans. Like I said, I don't mind. Gotta go. [Chil4Dayz has left the chat]**

 **FS: On a scale of one to ten, how far into denial would you say he is?**

 **DT: Not my place to say.**

 **FS: Whatever, so when is this game-**

 **FS: Shit, she's coming through the window again, gotta go [FamiliaSyndicator has left the chat]**

 **[DecaTective has left the chat]**

Brendon managed to turn around from the computer chair just as his blackrom GF came hell for leather through the window.

* * *

Furlok Rustus woke up with a yawn; which turned into a cough the moment her yawning caused her to inhale hay. She still regretted incorporating hay into her midden-hive, but she supposed that it, like almost everything she brought in here, did help with the artistic flow, which was good. As a teal blooded troll, she didn't have much in the way of powers, but she did have some acute senses that-while failing to keep her out of harms way-did help her create.

Furlok got up, checking her sketch modus. She drew a clock on it, and the clock shed stored in it appeared, showing her the time. She grinned, she had just enough time to check in on some friends and work on her masterpiece before she went to surprise her Kismesis. She went over to her Grubtop, and logged into PesterChum. Part of her wished the old site, Trollian, hadn't been outlawed. Supposedly it allowed you not just to chat across distance, but across time. Sounded cool.

Three of her friends were already on, Aspico, Java, and Risura, or as they were known online, OmniPale, Born2Fly, and LuckyStar. She smiled, Aspico was always great to talk to, Risura was usually a riot, and Java was actually pretty cool, which wasn't something she normally said about people so deep into the human kingdom she practically forgot trolls, consorts, and carapacians existed on occasion. She logged on as ParkourPainter.

 **OP: I'm not saying you need to talk about iT, I'm only saying it might helP. Wouldn't you agreE?**

 **BF: She's totally right you know~**

 **LS: I.. I dOn't rEAlly knOw. I mEAn, I gUEss I cOUld trY tAlkIng tO hIm, but yOU gUys knOw hOw hArd It Is fOr hIm tO tAkE thIngs seriously.**

 **OP: I'm certain he would take something like this seriouS, If only to avoid hurting your feelingS. Even if he doesn't feel that waY, He does still care about you a loT.**

 **PP: WG talk!ng about Ri!ura's turbo crush on Dust!nG?**

 **LS: ... ):(**

 **OP: Must you be so blunT?**

 **PP: !f ! don't, thGn who w!ll?**

 **BF: QK, me, or in a pinch, FS?**

 **PP: ]XP**

 **OP: If you absolutely must knoW, We were discussing possible quadrant matchupS, I find it important to know where everyone standS, And so long as it isn't on anyone in this chaT, I figured it would be safe and comfortable ^^**

 **PP: What !f somGonG that somGonG hGrG l!kGs jo!ns thG chat?**

 **OP: It's quite unlikelY, I've had this chat made semi private so that only those I'm decently certain are not romantically interested in any of us in any quadrant or vice versa will be joininG.**

 **PP: So ! takG !t wG won't bG s#!ng a cGrta!n soc!al buttGrfly !n thG chat today~**

 **BF: / / /**

 **OP: As a matter of fact nO, Though it truly would make these conversations safer if I could get definite confirmation from any of yoU.**

 **PP: !t's a good causG, but !t's hopGlGss, no-roms are too cagGy for this.**

 **OP: I don't wish to be rudE, But this is difficult enough as it iS. Perhaps you could log off now and we can chat about how your art is going later oN?**

 **PP:... you two arG lucky shG's amaz!ng. [ParkourPainter has left the chat]**

Furlok felt she had better things to do anyway, like working on her masterpiece for example. She left the computer and walked across the admittedly filthy floor. She told herself it was organized chaos, and while the clutter did help her think, the truth was that without a lusus, the animal creature assigned to help raise and look after a troll, she could only be asked to clean up so much.

Any time she felt lonely in her warm midden hive, built in memory of the lusus that had taken care of her in the early years of her life, she channeled it into painting, and what she was working on now required a lot of loneness, and anger, and confusion, and power to finish. In truth, she wasn't altogether sure what it was she was painting, but she was sure she could have it done before the game started.

She retrieved her paint brush from her strife specibus. Yes, she used paint-brush kind, and she'd heard no end of mocking about it; mocking that usually ended after a strife battle and a brush strike to someone's eye. She dipped it in the already prepared paints and got back to work, her brushstrokes forming the curves and point of a long, powerful tail.

She could only work on this for so long before she got a headache, usually resolved by rubbing her horns. They were dull, and flat, almost looking like small, rodent-like ears, as many soon to be paint covered trolls had pointed out to her in the past. Even her Kismesis had; and if he hadn't, they might not have ended up together. They definitely wouldn't have if he hadn't strifed her to a draw.

She got a shiver thinking of that first fight, his axe narrowly missing her foot as she brought her knee into his chest, her paint brush crashing against his head and covering his face in a deep teal. She'd wanted to bite his tongue right then and there, but it was another week of strifes and online arguments before either of them worked up the nerve to actually mention a possible pitch relation, thanks entirely to Aspico. They'd been spades sine the first hate-date.

She tried again, futilely, to get a little more work on the masterpiece done, but the flow was gone for the moment. 'Only one thing to do while I pass the time,' she thought with a grin, putting her brush away as she climbed up the ladder in her hive that led to her roof. It was shaky and uneasy, do in part to be very loosely instructed from anything and everything, but it supported her wait long enough for her to leap onto the fence that separated the human and troll kingdoms.

And it really was just a fence, as no one actually wanted any division between the groups, and just needed some kind of marker to know where one ended and the other began. Furlok held her balance on the fence for a few seconds before taking a leap into the air, actually managing a twirl as she gracelessly plummeted towards the wall of the house, missing the roof by mile.

Despite her failure, and despite her knowing now too late to fix it that it was in fact a failure, she still let out a triumphant shout of, "Parkour!" As her face smashed into the glass of the window. Said window didn't shatter and cover her face in cuts like it had the first three or so times, but rather spun as her momentum turned it inward, its hinges set to work almost like a dog door that sent her tumbling into the bedroom.

"Fucking nailed it." She said as she looked up, seeing Brendon, her admittedly well muscled Kismesis already on his way over to her, checking her to make sure she was okay. She'd told him in the past that it was awfully red of him to worry about her like that, to switch he'd slapped her across the face and reminded her that regardless of the quadrant, it was still love of some kind. She's slapped him back, and they'd proceeded to ruin his sheets.

* * *

 **Apologies for no lemons this chapter. Expect spicy blackrom sex at the beginning of the next chapter. This isn't the kind of story that will have lemons on a regular basis, it'll be story and character focused with lemons in it, so I figure I should give small warnings when lemons do happen in case someone's reading this and not in it for the lemons.**


	2. Chapter 2

**From this point forward, the lemons of this story will be posted in Sinful's Drabbles, that way those who want to read it can, and those who don't want to don't have to. Sorry for those who do enjoy the lemons, but I feel that this is a fair compromise.**

* * *

Aspico Sinil, known online as OmniPale, sighed contently as she logged out of her group chat with LS and BF. she had at least one more chat she wanted to make before this game that they would all be playing, and figured she would get something to eat first.

Aspico got up from her chair and looked over her hive. As an olive green blooded troll, she had been naturally drawn to the idea of building her hive into something pre-existing, and had her lusus help her make her home out of a large rocky hill. Said lusus kept her nest at the top of the hive while Aspico went about her business within it.

Aspico stretched out her limbs and walked across the room to check herself in the mirror. Her medium length hair was smooth as always. She wasn't sure how precisely it did that without her trying to, which annoyed other females, troll and human alike, to no end.

In effort to avoid this, she retrieved a comb from her memory moud-having to first find the two cards matching the idem, and fixed her hair to look more like the tangled scruffy locks that her lusus had. She always liked the look.

Aspico also took the time to clean her horns. They were thin and pointed back, and she was always paranoid about things getting stuck on them where she couldn't see. Content that they were clean., she went to retrieve food for herself, and to check on her lusus.

She poked her head out of the small hatch built in the top of the hive, seeing her semi-humanoid, feathery lusus sitting in her large nest atop the hive, content as always. She'd gathered fish to eat from somewhere, and was currently munching away.

Elegant as Aspico often thought her lusus was, this smelled less than pleasant, and so she retreated back inside, grabbed a loaf of bread she'd bought from the human kingdom, and returned to her grubtop desk.

She enjoyed taking pieces of the fluffy white grain food as she chatted and gamed, never really liking having to spend time specifically on eating when there were other things she could do with the time.

She gave a cursory examination to the notepad she had by her desk. On it was a small list of the names of her friends and semi-friends and their relations to each other, past, present, and potential future.

She was remarkable at keeping track of it all, or at least her friends told her so, she had a hard time believing she was any better at it than any of the others would be if they just set a little time and memory space aside for it.

As usual, the only relationship marked to be currently in progress was the black relationship between Furlok and Brendon. She'd been extremely excited to hear about this, and was glad to know she'd had a small hand in getting them together. All the other potential relationships were a bit nebulous, fluctuating here and there.

By her count, there were fifteen potential end results based on everyone's current status, and that was just taking into account the ones that were most likely. Going over this brought Aspico fond memories of the day she'd first bought her book on the quadrants, and known rather instantly what her life's passion was.

Well, what one of them was, she had three in total, the other being fencing, hence her rapier-kind strife specibus, and exploring. Her hive was close enough to the edge of the kingdom that she'd been able to explore the carapace, human, and consort kingdoms, spending as much time in each as she could whenever she could.

There was just something about immersing herself in the unfamiliar culture that was co cathartic, almost moreso that the cataloging of potential romantic relations between her friends; almost.

She blushed a deep olive green a the section of the paper that had months ago been torn from the pad and ripped to pieces in one of her few fits of anger, replaced now with a sticky note. It had been the section on her own status, and the note simply gave her screen name: OmniPale.

The others all seemed to view her as capable of calming down any argument and easing any worries, basically allowing her to act as a non-physical pale lover to all of her friends.

She was content with this, as it allowed her to focus on the current and future status of the others instead of dwelling on the past… mistakes she'd made in certain quadrants she wished not to speak of.

Putting these potentially ruinous thoughts out of her mind, she logged back on and entered the chat just as two of her patient-friends, she meant, were logging on for their own scheduled time as well.

 **[PowerhousepartyAnimal had joined the chat]**

 **[SpeakerofInterest has joined the chat]**

 **[OmniPale has joined the chat]**

 **OP: I'm glad to see you were both willing to log in to talK, Not everyone iS, Even when they really do need helP,**

 **SI: Ye h, s0rry bout n0t being here f0r the l st ch t, I w s just busy with my lusus, didn't me n t0 bl0w y0u 0ff :(**

 **PA: And I always make time for you, even when I'm super busy with my other friends, so don't even worry about it ^^**

 **OP: Good to heaR, Now let's begiN,**

* * *

Arvis Fiscan sighed in disappointment with himself as he typed to OP and SI about the great times he'd been having with his other secondary friend circle, or perhaps he was telling them about the tertiary group of friends, he'd lost track frankly.

He'd promised himself he'd stop doing that, both because it did little but waste time and and make them feel bad that they weren't apart of the other groups as well; which Arvis knew they couldn't be for a very particular reason.

that being that the tertiary friend group, the secondary friend group, and any friend group other than this one online, didn't actually exist. Even the only online only really consisted of OP, BF, SI, and CD on occasion.

Everyone else was either an friend of a his online friends who he got to chat with occasionally, or imaginary friends he spoke to do not go stir crazy alone in his house, but couldn't help pretending were real for por the sake of his few online friends not thinking he was a sad, lonely, weirdo; which he suspected they already knew and were simply humoring him.

OP at least had to know, she always knew things, which was part of the reason for his- no, he refused to think about it, he would not think about it. He had promised himself he wouldn't think about it. She was the 'OmniPale' for a reason, having thoughts about actually being her moirail, her exclusive palerom, was practically sacrilege.

Still, it was a more likely outcome than the red crush he held, which he stubbornly refused to talk about the entire time he was in the chat, which kind of went directly against the point of the chat, as did his claiming another friend was calling him away from the computer to hang out, but he did so anyway.

He slumped in his chair, grumbling to himself. He supposed there was nothing for curing self loathing like taking one's stress out on things that didn't deserve it. He had no real physical strength, nor even any strife cards in his specibus for battle, so he had to settle for the boxing video game he kept in his maze modus.

He was pretty decent at connecting the lines between the goal and the desired item through the maze to retrieve them, and only decent at the boxing video game itself. He'd told himself several times that he would buy himself a strife card and start getting strong any day now, but he was pretty sure that that happening was as fake as the friends he was imagining were cheering him on as he played.

He sighed, hoping the game that DT was insisting they all play would at least be fun, and not take place over some kind of face to face computer feed. He wasn't altogether sure he would be at all capable of handling that.

* * *

Jeff Iterus grumbled in annoyance when he realized what time it was. He'd gone for a walk in the consort kingdom, which was just around the corner from his house, and completely lost track of everything.

He'd shown off some batting skills to the consorts, and tried to let them use his bat-kind that he kept on him, but the process for allowing someone to borrow a strife specibus was too fucking arduous for him to handle and maintain his sanity.

It was only through reminder from a special friend, the one who'd given him the game in the first place, that Jeff had known it was time he went back home and told his friends what was happening.

Well, he liked to think they were his friends anyway, but he hardly spoke to one and the other had never directly said if they were or ot. Oh well, he supposed it wasn't that important, at least not currently.

He returned home to the cluttered heap of a house he lived in, he alone knowing how to navigate the organized chaos and make it to his bed, where a quick game of pong on his gamer modus let him retrieve his laptop and send a message out to the two team leaders.

[ **Decatective has joined the chat]**

 **[FamiliaSyndicator has joined the chat]**

 **[ExpertofExperts has joined the chat]**

 **DT: Alright, I've got the info. You can probably guess, but you two are the team leaders. Brendon, you're the hero team leader. Patior, you're the villain team leader.**

 **EE: *nd wh*t is i+ exac+ly +ha+ m*kes me * vill*in?**

 **DT: Nothing, that's just how it ended up, don't ask me I didn't pick, but you two do both get to pick who's on your teams, and it's first come first serve on that one.**

 **FS: sweetness.**

 **EE: I+'s f*irly obious +h*t your firs+ pick is your kismesis, so I'll m*ke my firs+ pick now *s well *nd choose MW. She's r*ther cunning for * low blood, *t le*st from wh*t I've been told.**

 **FS: She's all yours man, but good luck trying to tell her you're the one in charge, heh.**

 **[FamiliaSyndicator has left the chat]**

 **EE: Hmph, she'll do *s ins+ruc+ed.**

 **[Expertof Experts has left the chat]**

 **DT: This.. this is not going to go well..**


	3. Chapter 3

**Apologies for SI's quirk. Originally it used at symbols and plusses, but as FF omits those, I realized after the fact that she appeared to just be missing certain letters. They'll be replaced now with capitals (which I was trying to avoid and be creative but oh well.) Aditional apologizes for how wordy this chapter is gonna be, most reading this will remember how thick on words act 1 was.**

* * *

Lurabo Caralu, known online as SpeakerofInterest, was headed to check on her lusus. She was a yellow blooded troll, though not a psionic. Many seemed to forget that a yellow blood wasn't always gifted with fantastic psychic power, and as such didn't have powerful psychic lusus; though hers was still very strong.

Granted, she did have some small telekinesis, but it was useful only for lifting small objects close to her already, usually her tarot cards, as the deck was the only one in her card-kind strife specibus. It was also useful for retrieving the food her lusus enjoyed. She kept it in her miracle modus, as her lusus and indeed most living beings were unable to figure out how the bizarre fetch modus form worked.

Lurabo had never had any trouble with the miracle modus herself, and actually found it remarkably practical. She sometimes wondered why so many others seemed to have so much trouble with it, and concluded that it was a lack of patience on their part, as this was the only reasonable explanation she could see for it.

In any event, she wanted to make sure he was okay. She stepped through the large locked door that contained her chimerical lusus. He wasn't massive, but did need a wide open space, as a more confined space would drive him stir crazy. She found him clinging to the ceiling, dropping to the ground in front of her moments later.

He was simian in body structure, but his tail split off into to hooked stingers. His hands and feet, while separated into finger-like digits, were longer and sticky, helping him climb and across rough terrain quickly. His head was closer to a canine's than anything else. Lurabo was sure anyone who wasn't used to him would likely be frightened by his odd appearance, or his venomous stingers, or his tendency to maul anything and everything that got too close to Lurabo.

Okay so the last two were reasonable fears. Granted, the last was a fear for every troll, as there wasn't a proper lusus alive who didn't viciously attack anyone who got too close to the troll in their care. He also had a tendency to fight Lurabo herself, his method of training her. Lurabo retrieved her cards from her Strife deck when she saw the look in his eyes, knowing he wasn't going to make this easy.

 _ **STRIFE!**_

Lurabo leapt back, her telekinesis propelling her back faster and letting her avoid her lusus's initial assault. This left her pinned against the door though, and she quickly drew the first card from her tarot set; The Chariot. Lurabo dashed forward, a force around her body like armor, slamming into her lusus like a freight train and sending him skidding across the floor of the den.

His feet stuck him to the ground to stop his movement, his tail wrapped around a rock and sending it flying at Lurabo. She stopped it in midair with her mind, only to realize too late that it was a distraction. Her lusus's tail wrapped around her ankle, dropping her to the ground and then throwing her into the air. She managed to stop herself from hitting the ceiling, but self levitation was not a skill she was remotely proficient at. She quickly drew another card.

The Hermit. Lurabo closed her eyes, her mind clear and focused, allowing her to levitate herself down to the ground carefully. Her moment of calm was broken the moment she did though, as her lusus was upon her instantly, tail wrapped around her arms, hands tugging on her horns as though he were trying to steer her.

She tried to throw him off, both physically and telekinetically, both failures. Naturally, she went for another card, lifting it with her mind, but having it blocked back by her lusus's feet before she could actually activate it. He was trying to force her into a melee, but she hated her close quarters weapon. It was perhaps the worst weapon she'd ever heard of anyone using.

With no other recourse, she decided to humor him, retrieving the curved wooden tool. Crook-kind was all but worthless in battle, she was sure of it, but it was the best she had. She swung the crook wildly, managing to nail herself more times than the lusus before finally hitting his tail and freeing her hands. She grabbed the crook with her hands and shoved it at the lusus, pushing him off of her as she dove for the card he'd knocked away.

He planted his feet on the wall and kicked off hard, tackling her to the floor. He wouldn't actually do much more than give her a few scratches, but you'd be surprised how frightening a howling, clawing, stinging lusus can be even when you're certain they don't mean any real harm.

Thankfully she managed to grab the card, lifting it up and activating it: Justice. Her lusus's grip on her weakened until he'd let go entirely, the card filling the area with an aura of fairness and calm. He crawled back up to his perch as Lurabo withdrew his food from her miracle modus and levitated it up to him. He sat upside down by his feet, holding the back with his hands and bringing the pellets to his mouth with his tail. Lurabo quickly left the den before the card wore off, sighting as she shut and locked it behind her. He was a handful.

She went to the sink, wiping her face with water and moving her hands to her horns to rinse them as well. With her lusus fed, her back-curved horns cleaned, and her grubtop not cursed-at least if this morning's reading had been correct-she logged on, breath hitching nervously when she saw who else was on. Brendon and Furlok were already on, discussing the game.

 **[SpeakerofInterest has joined the chat]**

 **PP: Oh Oh hGy Lur, wG wErE just talk!ng about you.**

 **SI: Y-y0u were?**

 **FS: Yeah, turns out I'm leader of the hero team in this game. EE got leader of the villain team, go figure. Anyway, we're both allowed to pick our teams and I was thinking you could join ours.**

 **PP: Aw, 'our team'~? FS: -_- You're allergic to being civil, aren't you?**

 **PP: YGs, AbsolutGly.**

 **FS: I'd ask if you were raised in a barn, but then I remember it's more like you were raised in a literal giant hay bail.**

 **PP: Don't knock it, bGats the hGll out of your crappy human flat surface houses. thErG;'s no art in somEth!ng l!kG that.**

 **FS: Maybe because they aren't for being artistic, they're for living outside of the cold and wilderness, but you just bring it in with you.**

 **PP: F!rst of all, my h!vG !s warm as fuck, and you know that f!rst hand );), sGcond of all, thGrG's noth!ng wrong w!th bG!ng a l!ttlG w!ld, wh!ch you ALSO know f!rst hand, and th!rd of all, fuck you !n GGenGral.**

 **FS: So many Gs..**

 **PP: ThGy's ups!dG down e's, !t's a statGmGnt!**

 **SI: Um…**

 **FS: Oh, shit sorry, we kinda got carried away and forgot you were in the chat.**

 **PP: YGah, our bad.**

 **SI: N-n0, iT's fine, I d0n't mind wAiTing.**

 **PP: RGally? ):?**

 **SI: ReAlly, y0u sh0uldn'T leT me inTerupT y0ur piTch fun.**

 **PP: Aw, so nicG.**

 **SI: Heh, don'T menTion iT ^^**

Lurabo was practically sweating as she watched the spade lovers continue arguing back and forth, their previous conversation long forgotten in the sexual tense bickering. It was everything she could do not to type in a stunning declaration to them both that instant, but she knew it wouldn't go well.

She'd told Aspico so more than once, though she never told her why or reasons she felt were very obvious. Of course Aspico probably didn't know that she was the reason she couldn't bring up her ashen feelings, the olive blood was too sweet to know that she was any kind of problem.

Lurabo could never attempt to be an auspistice when the OmniPale, Ashen to all was her competition, she'd get dumped harder than.. She didn't actually have a metaphor for that sentiment, but she got the picture.

As she stewed, no longer even ogling the pitch bickering the way a widow stares into the middle distance, Lurabo noticed that another chat had popped up with Chil4Dayz. She hastily typed into the first chat that she agreed to be on their team, then switched to the other to see what he wanted to talk about. Evidently he'd messaged her a few times.

 **CD: what are you thinking about this game?**

 **CD: Hello? Yellow blood, you there?**

 **CD: I can see you're in another chat, so you're definitely at the computer.**

 **CD: Oh, it's PP and FS, busy ashen fucking them with your mind again?**

 **[SpeakerofInterest has joined the chat]**

 **SI: I-I've never 0nce d0n That.**

 **CD: Yeah, not once, closer to every single time they've had an argument in the same chat as you, and probably a few times in your own kinky ashen imagination. No judgement, it's kinda cute.**

 **SI: ThaT c0uld n0T be furTher fr0m The TruTh! Ashen r0mAnce is in n0 wAy sexuAl, And I w0uld never feel such A wAy!**

 **CD: Pretty defensive. Did you not read the 'no judgement' opart? And by the way, yes, it totally is. If you were their ashen half, you wouldn't just be settling arguments, you'd be joining in on the fun. Trust me, I would know.**

 **SI: And h0w exAtly w0ld y0 kn0w?**

 **CD: Oh, interested now are ya? Heh, well, I may or may not have acted as auspistice for a certain spade couple that may or may not be broken up currently.**

 **SI: There wAs An0Ther blAckr0m c0uple? Wh0 wAs iT? And why didn'T OP mentTiOn it.**

 **CD: Well…**

 **SI: N0.. y0u're n0T saying she..**

 **CD: 'Fraid so. She was pitch black for EE a few months back, and he returned the sentiment.. I think. He never puts too much emotion into anything so it's hard to tell if he was into it at all, which is probably why they broke up. Either that or I'm as shit at ashen as you would be great at it. Did I phrase that right? I think so.**

 **SI: Aspic0 And PAti0r.. I never w0uld hAve guessed.**

 **CD: Yeah, they kept it on the DL, guess OP figured it would look bad for her romcouncil image to be in a black relationship. Didn't think she was capable of hate myself, but I was there, and I saw just how deep she hated him, if you catch my meaning~**

 **SI: s-s0 AuspisTices.. ReAlly get T-T0 wAtch?**

 **CD: Watch? Honey, they help out~ sometimes. It isn't mandatory, like how moirails can totally hook up for stress relief you know. So, now that I've blown your mind with that, how long until I hear the ashen wedding bells?**

 **SI: Even if I wAnTed T0, And I'm n0t sAying I d0, we b0th kn0w iT w0uldn't work. They don'T wAnt An AuspisTice, And if They did, we b0th kn0w wh0 They'd g0 f0r.**

 **CD: The girl who directly refuses to be any one person's ashen these days?**

 **SI: ExAcTly! I d0'nT wAnnA be A next besT Thing..**

 **CD: Hey, honey, you would make the best fucking ahsen they'd could get, and you know it. OP is good and all for a group, but one on one? Well, one on two in this case? That's definitely where you'd shine. They'd start argueing and fighting, it'd get right to that point where it stops being sexy and starts being harmful and then BAM! Out steps Lorabo like, 'step back bitches, i'm about to drop some sweet ashen knowledge on ya!' and after their minds are blown, kinky threeway. Or something like that.**

 **SI: Pffhahahaha! OkAy, iT's g00d T0 kn0w I cAn leAst reply 0n y0u T0 geT hilAri0us fAnTAsy scenAri0s.**

 **CD: Heh, always, but you can tell me about stuff to. I doubt you've told OP about thinking she'd be better at clubs-love than you. I'm no omni-pale, but I could probably help you out.**

 **SI: Are.. are y0u suggesTing we geT T0geTher? PAlewise I meAn?**

 **CD: If you want, not like I've got anything in any quadrant at the moment, lol #funnycuzI'msadandloney.**

 **SI: L0l, y0u d0n'T even kn0w what T0 sAy T0 ThAT.**

 **CD: How about 'totally yes let's be diamonds now'?**

 **SI: I'll Think Ab0uT iT.**

 **CD: Didn't hear a no, so I'm calling it a win~**

* * *

Dustine Lerodi coudln't believe he'd just tried to get with Lourabo, pale or not. He liked to joke around, so maybe he could convince her he'd been joking? He doubted he'd be able to do any good as as a moirail, but of course she'd probably tell him he was wrong just like he'd done for her, missing the key difference that he proveably couldn't keep people together.

He'd really tried to help out Aspico and Patior, and it had been fun for awhile, but he hadn't noticed it crumbling until it was too late, and neither of them had been the same in terms of love life since.

Maybe humans just weren't meant to partake in troll romance. 'No,' Dustine thought, 'Brendon and Furlok are doing great.' Maybe it was just him who wasn't cut out for troll romance. Or romance in general.

But it was too fucking late down, he'd just dived headfirst into a pale proposal with a girl who even he could tell really needed it and would probably agree. And right before the game to, which was shit luck, as he'd agreed to be on Patior's team; a choice made primarily because LS had joined, and who knows why he had.

Sighing, Dustine got up to try and relieve some stress. He whispered a few verses from the good book in order to retrieve a dummy from his versemodus, then took out his mace. Really it was just a stick with a weight on one end, but his mace-kind strife specibus had allowed it, so it was good enough to wail on a training dummy with.


	4. Chapter 4

**Apologies, this chapter is gonna be long, but I promise this is the last overlong exposition chapter before the good stuff starts.**

* * *

Patior Abrica, known online as ExpertofExperts, had just learned that he would be the leader of his team in the upcoming game. He would be the villain team leader, which he didn't mind. Assigning value to such concepts was a waste of effort, and as a pure blue indigo blood, he refused to waste effort, or even thought.

With Brendon already having one of the ten potential team members, he had to act quickly in order to assemble his team of five others. He'd already convinced LS to join him with very minimal prodding, which had brought CD as well. He'd also staked his claim on MW, but though he disliked admitting it, he knew she'd be difficult to actually cooperate with. She was rather rebellious for a bronze blood.

He stepped away from the grubtop momentarily to deal with a few external things. As much time as he spent online or at his desk generally with either machines or coding, he refused to allow his body to become weak because of it, and had several tests set up throughout his well structured hive to make sure nothing deteriorated.

He observed himself in the mirror to check or visible discrepancies. He saw no bags under his blue tinted eyes. His teeth were still pointed, not yet worn down by his grinding them in frustration. His angular, symmetrically pointed horns still matched and were in their usual condition. His hair was still well kept and had not succumb to any effects of stress or frustration.

Content with this, he moved to his window, where he kept his rifle. It was a sniper, as he saw no point in being up close to a threat unless necessary, and had always used sniper-kind for this reason. He also had bayonette-kind in the unlikely but admittedly possible event of an up close attack.

He looked through the scope, lining his shot up to the target he'd set up a good distance away from his hive for the purposes of an accuracy test. He took his shot and found that his sight was as accurate as ever.

He continued through his hive with various physical and mental tests he'd set up for himself. Unlike most trolls, he was unhampered by an overprotective or under intelligent lusus, having lost his as a wriggler.

Unlike Furlok, who to his knowledge had rather vivid memories of losing her lusus, Patior's earliest memories were of the robotic lusus that had been constructed for him, and which had led to his love of building and maintaining machinery.

He did not know who actually built the machine, but he had often believed it was one of the creators themselves, as none in his kingdom confessed to any knowledge of the machine, claiming the mental man lusus had just sort of appeared with him one day and begun constructing his hive.

The machine lusus now patrolled outside the hive, its sensors on alert for any possible threats. If he was in danger, he would know well before he was actually in danger, and his sniper rifle would handle anything his robotic lusus was unable to.

With his personal examinations complete, he returned to his grubtop to begin recruiting. A group chat was currently in session with several different viable team members. This would be easier than he assumed.

* * *

Java Vetaber, known online as Born2Fly, was excited for the game that was about to commence. She didn't know very much about it if she was honest, but she doubted she needed to. If there were any pressing matters to deal with, she'd have been told.

She still wasn't sure which team she was actually on, and figured she would be told today now that Jeff had elected team leaders. She didn't mind which side she was on, but was kinda hoping she ended up on a team with a certain someone..

No, she couldn't let herself get distracted. That was perhaps the worst possible thing one could do while operating a plane. Granted, it was only a simulation of a plane displayed by her trusty pilot figurine, but it was excellent training, and as far as she was concerned, she was currently the onboard pilot flying over her home in the human kingdom, and she saw no good coming from a sudden crash landing.

Granted, she did eventually crash anyway, ending the simulation, but that had nothing to do with her being distracted. There was only so much power in her house and if too many things happened at once. Things started shutting down.

The messenger on her laptop crashed her pilot figure's fancy display, leaving her sitting on her bed, illusion ruined. She was tempted to attack her laptop, but thankfully unable. She had brassknuckle-kind, and for this specific reason kept her actual brassknuckles, given to her as a gift from Brendon, in her charm modus.

If she got riled up and wanted to hurting something/one, she'd have to go through the process of sorting the charms in her modus to get the weapon out. This would give her time to cool down and decide if cracking teeth out was really called for in this situation.

She decided that of course it wasn't and went over to join whatever conversation had started up, finding that three others were already on. She guessed correctly that they were talking about the game and logged in.

 **[Born2Fly has joined the chat with Mighway, LuckyStar, and ProduceNinja]**

 **MW: Glad ya could join us,**

 **BF: Anytime, what's everyone talking about?**

 **PN: MW is suggesting we form a sort of alliance, then all pool to be on the same team.**

 **BF: Sounds cool, but uh.. What for?**

 **MW: So we can all get ahead why else?, This way no matter who's 'in charge', we can still run the show,**

 **LS: you mean you can run the show X:?**

 **MW: I didn't fucking say anything like that!, We'd all be in charge, Like our own personal Round Table,**

 **BF: She's kinda got a point. No matter who's team we're on, if what DT said is true, the team leader isn't really a leader, just the first person in the game. If we all pair up, then we can get things done for real.**

 **LS: fair enough is guess, but if no ones in charge of us, then how do we make decisions X:?**

 **PN: I suppose we could go the democratic sy-stem and put things to votes. There's four of us here, so if we end up in a tie then we can take it to the actually 'team leader' for a tiebreaker.**

 **MW: Oh, So you're down with the system now?,**

 **PN: I'm just trying to find a balance between smart and morale here, balance is key to most of my choices actually, just like-**

 **MW: Make one more referance to your garden and I'ma reach through this screen and smack ya,**

 **LS: much as i'd rather not side with the wicked bitch of the west over there, i gotta agree X:X**

 **MW: Oh so I'ma bitch now?,**

 **LS: now? you make it sound like some new development XXP**

 **BF: Cut the pitch flirting or I'll sick OP on ya. Anyway, alright, I'm in. Who's team are we gonna be on.**

 **PN: I believe LS has already agreed to be on EE's team.**

 **MW: Oh now what the fuck!?,**

 **LS: dont like it, kick me out of the alliance. oh wait, if you do i can tell everyone else about it XXD**

 **MW: You clown worshipping fuck,,, alright, fuck it, we're on EE's team now.**

 **BF: Well, fine I guess. Is the last spot on his team taken?**

 **PN: Yes, CD took it. Shortly after LS joined him funnily enough ;)**

 **LS: none of that now, dont you have plants to go talk to?**

 **PN: … maybe.**

* * *

Risura Inatag stood up from his desk, exiting the chat on his grubtop. EE had been baffled to find that he suddenly had a full team with basically no effort, but he chalked it up to his being incredibly smart and everyone wanting to be on his team.

He 'd gone rather immediately to brag to FS, not making the connection that if half the people were his now, FS's team was just as full as his own. Risura was near certain there was something genuinely wrong with the guy's head.

Then again, Risura supposed people often judged him for his seemingly bizarre actions, all of which made perfect sense to him. Most jade blood trolls would choose a home below ground or at least in an area of low light, if only to appease their inevitably light sensitive lusus.

Risura, following the teachings/insane ramblings of the book that had dictated most of the decisions he'd made throughout his life, had instead opted to live rather specifically in an area of high light, his hive built with several sunroof areas so light could keep the place lit.

It was this same book, which had grown worn over the years, that also lead to his choosing the dice modus, convincing him that certain things, like probability, could absolutely be controlled with enough effort. He'd never failed to get what he needed out of his modus, so he supposed it had to be right.

It had also led to his choice of strife specibus; fist-kind. It told that any warrior who wasn't willing to get their own hands dirty in a scrap could hardly be called a good warrior at all. He'd opted to tip the scales in his favor a little on that one, working out more and more frequently to make sure punches from him would actually do something. He supposed he might well have been the most physically capable jade blood ever, which wasn't saying much but still.

Some accused him of being a moron for following the teachings of a book whose origin he couldn't even pinpoint to dictate his life, calling him cruel for subjecting his light sensitive lusus to such a well lit area.

To those people he reminded that his lusus could dig a pit four times his size in less time than he could fill a glass of water. The lusus slept underground during the day, the network of tunnels he'd built having an entrance into the hive so Risura could go inside to feed and spare with him.

Speaking of which.. It was getting to be about that time. He rolled the dice, getting a naturally twenty and receiving the mole-treats instantly. He pulled up the hatch and jumped into the pit. Once in the near entirely dark environment, his skin began to glow.

He was no rainbow drinker, but all jade bloods glowed at least a little if it was dark enough. He shook the bag of treats, drawing out his lusus. He was large, almost five times the size of Risura himself.

Between that and the claymour length claws, fighting with him was always very… tricky.

* * *

Valtina Vitria, known online as ProduceNinja, resented the mocking of her craft rather vehemently. It was for this reason she did not mock LS's bizarre book-based religion, FS's strange mafia fixation, or CD's unsettling love of clowns.

She sighed, getting up and walking out of her house and into the garden. Well, she stepped outside of her house, entering the massive tangle of vines and plants that occupied her yard. She wasn't sure how she'd managed it, but it was glorious, a dozen or more different plants all connected by a single root vine, a massive organism.

Said organism grew things benign like more vines and flowers, beneficial like fruits and vegetables, and even malicious like several toxic and carnivorous offshoots growing in different directions.

Part of her was aware that, technically speaking, all these different plant structures should not have been capable of sprouting from the same plant, but her parents had been amazing, and this had the plant they'd left her for care, and it in turn took care of her.

In this way she felt like she very nearly understood the troll concept of having a lusus. She even spoke with the gardenvine; though both her friends and neighbors alike found this rather odd. She was less offended by the neighbors though, as they were all carapacians, and she could convince herself that anything she said or did would be odd from their perspective.

Curiously, she'd found herself having strange dreams about the carapacians recently. Only the dark shelled ones, but it was still odd. She dreamt of high towers, deep purple with dozens of the chess people below, whispering nervously.

She shook her head, refusing to give the recurring dreams any of her waking thought. She took out her strife specibus, or rather she took them all out. Her garden had inspired her to choose more than one specibus, and she was armed to the figurative teeth.

She now had a catch all strife specibus of garden-kind, holding any gardening implement. Before she'd had to individually carry shovel/trowel-kind, shear/lopper-kind, glove-kind, and her favorite, pitchfork/sai-kind.

It amused her to no end that her sais, a pair of replica ninja weapons she'd gotten for her birthday, fit in the same category as her pitchfork. She'd thought at first it was just because of similar shape, only to learn that it actually worked because the sais were in fact gardening tools to start with. She supposed this meant she could also fit nunchucks in, but she knew she'd give herself a concussion if she tried.

This had also influenced her to get the tree-modus, but as much as her borderline phytophilia drove most of her decisions, her frustration with tree-modus eventually led her to switch out for stack, which she found easier.

* * *

Mutosi Fimgil, the brown blooded troll who went by MighWay online, was still remarkably pissed at Risura for just deciding to go with Patior before they'd discussed it. Probably that stupid book again. She made a fiftieth mental note to fucking burn it. Maybe then he'd get some sense into him.

Then again, if he did, he would be as fun to argue with. All but growling at the unintentional implications of that thought, she took out her scramble-modus. Not even to get anything, sorting the scrambled objects in the rubix-cube like inventory just calmed her.

She took a breath and figured she might as well get ready for the game. According to DT, who she'd actually had the good sense to check with unlike the others, she would in fact need her strife specibus and would want everything she wanted to keep in her hive at the time of the game's beginning.

She wasn't sure why, but didn't see any point in arguing with that brick wall. She looked around for her strife cards, having two. One was blank, as she'd never felt the need for a second weapon. The first was broom-kind, an ironic statement that let her turn the expectation of the blood cast into a weapon against them.

Never mind the fact that there wasn't actually a blood cast left at this point. She still believed it was there, just out of sight, and she had to be ready for it. Thankfully, they'd have to get through her lusus to get through her.

In addition to being roughly the size of a buss, her lusus had massive pincer claws and a tail stinger with enough venom in one stab to kill a fuscia blood. The massive scorpion was extremely territorial, moreso than most lusus, likely do to her instinctive knowledge that her chosen troll was a brown blood and thus extremely fragile by troll standards.

Mutosi didn't much care for the fragile treatment, but appreciated the protection. She very much wanted her lusus with her in the game, and used her powers to call her inside. Thankfully there was an entrance in the back of the jagged structure that would let her come in without having to rip a hole in the place; which is how the entrance in the back was formed.

* * *

 **There, next time we can get to the interesting stuff. I mean, hopefully this has been at least kinda interesting otherwise I've written a terrible introduction. You get what i mean. In the meantime, head over to sinful's drabbles for this chapter's lemon. Yes, there's on in there, enjoy ^^**


	5. Chapter 5

**DT: Alright, are you all ready?**

 **FS: I think so, run through it one more time so I can wrap my head around it?**

 **EE: If +his is +he level of effort+ you plan to pu+ in, you m*s *s well forfeit+ now.**

 **CT: I'd like to remind the both of you that we are not actually competing. If anything we're working together. Not sure why we're divided into teams, we just are.**

 **PP: GGt on w!th !t would ya?**

 **CT: Right, right, sorry. Everyone has the game installed. PP will act as server player to FS and get him in the game. Once she does, OP will get her in and so on until FS has to get the last player on his team in. The same process will happen for the other team, BF will get EE in, then CD will get her in etc.**

 **BF: And what exactly am I meant to do to 'get EE into the game'?**

 **CT: Everything you need is already on your computer. I don't actually know all the specifics, but it can't be too hard. Just be careful and move quickly. Don't want to lose anyone before the game even starts.**

 **FS: What do you mean 'lose' someone?**

 **CT:... Don't worry about it, just stay focused on the game and everything will be fine. Let's get this going, everyone's waiting.**

 **[DeciTective has closed the chat]**

Brendon was a little frustrated by the lack of actual information he had about what was about to happen to him. All he knew was that the game would manipulate his entire house. It was a good thing he didn't live with his family anymore, because they'd probably be pissed by such an intrusive game. He sat back and waited for Furlok to do whatever she was supposed to do as 'server player'.

He got a feeling she'd started when he saw his room getting stretched out by what looked like a large green computer cursor. He nearly jumped out of his skin when he saw it, only keeping his composure because there were few things more embarrassing then letting yourself get frightened by your Kismesis, especially if they could see you when you were, and he was pretty sure she could.

With the wall of his house extended an extra six feet, three items appeared along the wall. The first was a large metal tube like device, the second looked like a mechanical carving station, and the third was a sort of raised circular platform with a pedestal next to it. According to the messages Furlok sent him as she deployed them, the items were called the Cruxtruder, Totem Lathe, and Alchemiter respectively.

 **PP: To start the gamG you'vG got to opEn the Crux. Two th!gs should pop out. Put somGth!ng w!th a facG !nto thG f!irst and takG thG sGcond to thG alchGm!tGr.**

Brendon nodded, pretending he fully understood, and went over to the Crux. He tried lifting and turning it for a few moments before taking out his wood cutter axe and taking a swing at the handle. It spun from the force of the impact and the lid of the machine rocketed off and out the window. Immediately a glowing red orb floated from the opening, pulsing with light as it buzzed softly. Following it was a similarly colored cylinder of unknown material which didn't float out so much as get pushed out and onto the floor.

Brendon looked at the spiraling pattern of the glowing red orb, which Furlok informed him was called the Kernalsprite. Looking around his room for something with a face, he grinned when his eyes landed on his Midnight Crew figures. He went over to where he kept them on the shelf and selected the figure for Diamond Droog, who was in his opinion, objectively the best member of the crew.

He returned to the sprite and dropped the figure into it. In a flash, the face of Droog appeared in the sprite, but it didn't seem to be able to speak or move much. Shrugging at the usefulness of what he'd just done, Brendon followed Furlok's other instructions, picking up the chunk of what the next message told him was called Cruxite. He placed it on the Lathe and a pattern was carved into it instantly. He again nearly jumped at how quickly the mechanism began working on it. If he hadn't pulled his hand away for another second it would have been ripped off.

When the Lathe was done, he placed it on the pedestal of the Alchemiter per Furlok's orders, and the machine activated, causing a red oak tree to appear on the pedestal. Brendon walked over to his laptop for further instructions. **FS: I have successfully created a tree through I assume spirit magic. The fuck now?**

 **PP: Now, accord!ng to th!s, you brGak !t. Your a wood cuttGr r!ght? Go to town!**

This Brendon could handle happily. He walked over to the tree and took a massive swing at it. The tree wasn't very tough, taking only three chops before shattering into pieces. The moment it did, there was a massive flash of light, Brendon's house teleporting. He just barely had time to see a red glow in the sky that he couldn't fully identify before everything outside his windows went pitch dark.

 **FS: The double fuck? PP: Sh!t hGll no t!mG! FS: What do you mean? What's happening? PP: Short vGers!on, go k!ll whatGvGr's brGak!ng !nto your housG, long vGrs!on, shut thG fuck up so OP can gGt mG !n bGforG ! fuck!ng GxplodG! !'m so gonna havG CT's ass for th!s!**

Brendon tried to question further, but received no answer. None from Furlok anyway. "Hey kid, get up and get ready. We've got some targets incoming." Brendon froze when he heard a voice in his house that wasn't his or Furlok's. He turned slowly and saw that his sprite had undergone a bit of a change. It had lost he circular appearance, now looking like Diamond Droog himself, save for being bright red and having a wispy ghost like tail instead of legs.

"Droog?" He questioned, baffled. "Yep," Droogsprite said, "Now if you're done gawking, you're about to be shot." Brendon barely had enough time to take cover behind his bed before his bedroom was shot up, exploding with the sound of the shots as his bed and wall became riddled with bullet holes. Looking out the window, he saw that his lawn had appeared in the black void along with his house, and standing on it were a dozen or slow little creatures, all pitch black in color, with sharp claws and fangs. They had a diamond mark on their chests like Droog did, and were all armed with machine guns, three of whim had crawled through the window. Brendon gulped, taking a deep breath before taking the shot gun out of his strife deck.

Trying to just act without thinking, Brendon popped up from behind his bed and fired, the spread managing to hit and kill one of the monsters, which the health bars of the others told him was called a Shale Imp. As it died it left behind a few pieces of a bright blue crystal like object. "Grist," Droogsprite said, "Build grist to be specific. You need it if you plan to use be making anything more than what you've got." He seemed surprised at himself for knowing this.

Furlok was blowing up his computer with messages, likely watching him getting shot up and wondering where the fuck his house had been teleported to, but answering her would mean being somewhere other than behind his bed, which was the only piece of furniture in the room thick enough to block the bullets being fired at him. When the imps stopped to reload, Brendon jumped up again, this time hoping to get rid of all the imps in his room.

The second shot of his gun killed the second imp. He jumped forward, slamming the butt of the gun into the third imp's face. It staggered back, dropping its gun. He switched to axe-kind quickly and brought the wood cutting axe down hard on the imp's head, killing it. He seemed to gather the build grist automatically by walking over it. "That.. that was awesome!" He shouted, Droogsprite pointing his thumb outside, "Good for you, but you got a few issues to take care of before you start celebrating."

There were still at least ten more imps outside. Above his house was a bright glowing circle, a spiraling pattern pulsing within it. He could assume he was meant to get up to that somehow, and that the imps were supposed to stop him. This was either going to be fun, or fucking terrifying.


	6. Chapter 6

Brendon had successfully managed to dispatch all the imps who'd gotten into his mouth, gathering a decent sum of the build grist that they'd left behind. Furlok had had a few choice words to give him for ignoring her earlier messages, though considering he;'d been mid-firefight at the time, he found it hard to sympathize with her on that front.

 **PP: Your housG !s gonG and thG sky turnGd rEd, the fuck !s go!ng oni?**

 **FS: It's hilarious how you ask me that like you expect me to know. Hang on, Droogsprite is saying all you need to do is use the cursor to built up my house. I need to get to that glowing thing above my house, and you will to when OP gets you into the game.**

 **PP Th!s !s a wG!rd fuck!ng gamG. So, l!kG, !'m gonna gGt onG of thosG spr!tG th!ngs to? And whatGvGr ! put !n w!ll comG to l!fG?**

 **FS: Droogsprite's saying that yeah that's about the size of it, but you need to hurry because the reason the sky turned red is that there are meteors coming for you.**

 **PP: How thG fuck arG you just casually say!ng thati?i?i?**

 **FS: Oh come on, it's just a game. If the meteors hit, you won't be in the game but it's not like they're real.**

 **PP: 1'm look!ng at thG Gmpty cratGr that usgd to bG your housG, ! th!nk th!s !s for rGal.**

 **FS: You're full of it, but whatever, just hurry up. Droogsprite says I can use the Alchemiter to make new weapons and stuff, this is gonna be great.**

Naturally the first thing Bredon alchemized was his shotgun, combining it with Midnight Crew poster to create the Wake Up Call, a lethal double barrel shotty that would blow a hole through a brick wall.

Next was his ax, which he combined with cigar lighter (he didn't actually smoke, but he kept a box of cigars and a lighter to complete the look on the rare occasiona he allowed himself to be seen in public wearing his mafia get up) to make the Fire Ax, a heated chopping tool that did perhaps the exact opposite of what a fireman's fire ax did.

Next he combined his mafia outfit with the figure of Hearts Boxcar from the Midnight Crew, creating the Boxcar Buffer. The pitch black suit clashed slightly with the heart symbol on it, but had been imbued with the muscle man of the Midnight Crew's strength and durability, making it decent armor.

Next he combined the hat of the Boxcar Buffer with his computer, creating the BrainBoxTop, a hands free computer that left him check and answer messages just by thinking about them, and was just as durable as the rest of the suit.

Brendon took his figures of the last two members of the Midnight crew, Space Slick and Clubs Deuce, for later combinations, storing them in his wallet modus along with his admittedly less beloved figures of the Felt, the Midnight Crew's rival gang.

With his new gear on hand, he headed outside and up the stairway Furlok had made for him. It was littered with various shale imps, all dressed in Midnight crew attire and armed with cuesticks or firearms. At the top was not an imp, but something much bigger guarding the gate. That was going to be a problem.

* * *

Furlok didn't care what Brendon said, those meteors were real and they were actually coming down. She had to get into the game quickly, and OP had already placed the three items in her hive. She quickly went through the process of creating her entry item, which appeared in the form of a block of cheese.

Furlok hesitated to enter though, remembering she had to put something into the pulsating kernelsprite first. She reached first for the painting, the masterpiece, as it would be the most quick and efficient, but decided against it.

She took a deep breath and ran out of her hive, throwing herself onto the grass of her lawn ring and starting to dig as quickly as she could with her bare hands, pulling up dirt in handfuls and flinging it to the side. If the sprite really did bring things to life, then there was only one thing she wanted to go into it.

She reached into the hole, prying out the first piece she could find: a skull. The skull of her lusus to be more specific, buried in front of her hive to preserve her memory. Furlok bolted back inside, chucking it into the sprite and not even looking at it before sinking her teeth into the crystalline cheese to enter the game.

The empty space where her hive had once been was bombarded with flaming rocks only moments after she entered. Furlok recoiled from the broken cheese, hoping she hadn't cracked her teeth on the stupid thing, and feeling like an idiot for thinking it would behave like actual cheese.

She forgot all about the pain in her mouth when she turned around though, seeing someone she hadn't seen since she'd learned how to walk. Her lusus was alive again, and hovering in front of her.

She wanted to hug her, but she flew away when she did, "If you touch me, you'll get fused into the sprite." She said, both she and Furlok's jaw dropping. Lusus couldn't verbally talk to their trolls, but now she could. Furlok didn't care if this game blew the entire world up with meteors, she officially felt that it was worth it.

* * *

Aspico was completely shocked by the revival of Furlok's lusus. She supposed she'd been underestimating the power of this game. As a result though, she was less heartbroken than she would have been when she found her own lusus's body.

One of the meteors had been on a collision course with Aspico's hive, and the harpy like lusus had sacrificed herself to buy Aspico time, flying up and meeting the flaming rock head on.

Her body landed in the lawn ring, and was thus easily brought inside and put into the kernelsprite before Aspico drove her rapier tip into the large bird seed that had appeared as her entry object.

* * *

Lurabo just barely understood what was happening. She only firmly understood three things: she needed to put something into the sprite, she needed to destroy the crystal ball that had appeared as her entry object, and she needed to do it without her hive being destroyed by meteors.

Her lusus was, of course, the prime candidate for the sprite, but when she went down to get him, she was struck with a sense of utter dread. His door was open. The meteors hitting the ground had shaken the hive and freed him. There was no telling where he was now.

Lurabo took a deep breath, taking out her tarot cards and drawing, hoping she would draw something useful. She felt her yellow blood freeze solid in her veins when she saw what she'd drawn: The Devil.

Lurabo was a firm believer that there were no bad cards in her deck. She was limited to only the basic major arcana cards, which she did wish to change in the future, but she still felt that any basic tasks could be solved with the right cards.

But this was not the right card. It was her first unlucky draw in months. Not five seconds passed from her seeing the horned demon on the card before she heard her lusus wailing in pain outside.

She ran from the hive, doing all she could not to break down when she saw her lusus. He hadn't made it across the street before a meteor had descended crushed him. It was small, and had been slowed down by something else before hitting. Her lusus was still alive, but in great pain.

The chimerical creature looked up at Lurabo, pleading. Lurabo knew what she had to do. She drew again: The Hanged Man. Her lusus let out a choking sound as he vanished from view, appearing inside the kernelsprite and merging with it. Lurabo hurried back inside, taking out her crook and smashing the crystal ball to enter.

* * *

Jeff was surprised by just how unprepared he felt as Arvis dropped the starting items in his home. He knew what to do, he'd been planning for it for months with his friend, but now that it was happening..

He tried to shake it off. He took a swing with his bat and freed the kernalsprite, then left the room quickly to find something to merge the sprite with. He supposed he could put his poster of Jackie Robinson into the sprite, or perhaps the Bambino himself Babe Ruth.

Considering the sprite could have two things put in, he supposed he could combined them both inside of it. But he never got the chance to do so. He heard an odd, almost ethereal ringing sound from his bedroom, and ran back just in time to see someone vanish in a burst of flash of red.

His sprite had been taken up. A few consorts from the nearby kingdom must have found their way into his house, because somehow one of each four kinds of consort had managed to fall in, combining in such a way that it counted as one thing.

He supposed they must have all gone in at the same time while holding hands, the end result being a sprite with a turtle shell, alligator jaws, iguana skin, and a salamander tail. He couldn't begin to wonder what circumstances had led to this merging. Had it had anything to do with the flash of light he'd seen?

He didn't know, and considering the flaming ball of murder falling towards his house, he could stand to figure it out later. He took his bat and swung at the pinatte style hanging baseball that had appeared as his starting item, shattering it, and entering.

* * *

Arvis was half glad to be the last one entering the game. It meant that he didn't have to help anyone else enter the game and could just wait and think. He already knew what he was going to put into his sprite, having been told by the others had be would need to do so before he entered.

He did not know what he was going to do about a strife weapon. He'd bought a strife specibus, but hadn't actually assigned a weapon to it yet. He was told that it didn't matter, but of course it did, they'd think he was stupid if he went in with a weak weapon.

He needed Jeff's help with opening the Crux, jeff using the cursor to drop the chair on the lever. When it opened, Arvis pitched his favorite boxing game into it, creating the sprite as the main character of the game, Cutter Strike. He was the loner of the game, using the only hooked weapons in the series.

Seeing them appear on his sprite, he got an idea. He'd bought a fishing pole years ago, but never used it because he'd never actually had anyone to go fishing with. He stored the pole in his maze modus for later, but kept the hook, putting it in his strife card and creating Hook-Kind. It wasn't the greatest he figured, but it would do.

He returned to his room, using the hook to chip at the mannequin wrestler that had appeared as his entry item until enough pieces had come off for it to count as broken, letting him enter the game. He suspected that he would have been killed by meteors had Cuttersprite not been slashing them out of the way for him.

And with that, the six members of the hero team had entered the game.


	7. Chapter 7

Patior refused to be alarmed by the meteors hurtling towards his house. He was smart enough to know they would absolutely kill him if they made impact, but he was also ware by this point that entering the game would remove his hive from the area, rendering the threat moot.

With this in mind, he felt that the meteors were hardly worth the effort of thinking about even as the troll kingdom burned around him. He kept his focus on the game. Java would be his server player, and she was currently attempting to get the starting items placed in his home. He took the time to do the same for Mutosi for efficency sake.

Patior's robotic lusus found the flaming rocks to be much more of a threat than Patior did, and while he worried himself with the game specifics, his lusus was busy making sure none of the meteors crushed them before he could eter, using the various weapons that he had been upgraded with top destroy the meteors as they got close.

When Patior had opened the Crux, he looked to his lusus to see what he was doing, finding that he;'d entered overdrive mode, burning out all of his possible systems to maximize the amount of damage he could unleash in a single attack.

Gattling guns, lasers, and missiles firing from his body in an impressive display of force that reduced the giant flaming rock about to crush them to nothing but charred powder raining down over the house.

Unfortunately the force of the attack took its toll on the cybernetic lusus, and he was gradually beginning to die as his systems shut down. Patior went over, grunting with the effort of hefting his lusus and carrying him over to the kernelsprite.

He put his lusus in, a small smiling forming when he saw that his caretaker would not be perishing today. It quickly died down though when Patior remembered that he could be seen by Java. didn't trust her not to go jabbering to the others about him becoming emotional. Couldn't afford them to see their leader in such a state, benign or not.

Patior pried his sniper rifle out of its post at his window, took aim at the target circle that had appeared as his entry item, and fired. The target shattered, and Patior's hive glowed as he entered the game.

* * *

Java had basically zero understanding of what was happening and why, but felt that now was not the time to ask questions, what with the flaming boulders descending and all. Dustine had already dropped the starting items into her house, and she'd armed herself with her brass knuckle kind. All that was left was the sprite.

She'd seen how Patior had put his lusus in, returning it to life-and on a side note she was not easily going to forget seeing the blue blood actually smile for what she assumed to be the first time in his life-and went over to her bed.

She retrieved the pilot-device, responsible for so many hours of flight simulation training, and chucked it into the kernelsprite. In a flash, the sprite appeared, a female pilot with aviators on, and jet wings protruding from her back like a bird.

She seemed to be a cross between the plane design of the device, and Java's in simulation avatar character. Java grinned excitedly at seeing her. Pilotsprite smiled back, instructing her to break the entry item while she took care of the incoming bogies.

Java nodded, taking a moment to watch Pilotsprite blast meteors out of the air before bringing her brass knocks down hard on the mini-landing pad that had appeared as her entry item, shattering it instantly, and entering.

* * *

Dustine was in his every aspect of being freaking the fuck out. Meteors were destroying the entire kingdom around him, even his lawn had caught fire by now. He was having to mentally go over every word of his Book of Mirth just to keep from having a full tilt meltdown.

Valtina was thankfully in less of a panicked state than him, and once the beginning items had been placed, she explained what he needed to do, and told him to get a move on. Soon everyone would be in the game and safe from the meteors.

With a second of cold, abject horror at the thought of Risura not making it into the game in time, Dustine forced himself back into his laid back persona, taking out his mace and bringing it down hard on the Crux lever to open it.

He threw his book of mirth into it, creating a sprite resembling a half-demented clown, but who only smiled dignified as he went out to ward off the meteors. Dustine looked to his entry item, finding that it was a sort of skill tester machine. He brought his mace down onto the it hard, the skilltester shattering from the impact and allowing Dustine to enter the game.

* * *

Valtina was on the verge of a meltdown as well, but kept herself focused so as not to let everything crumble around her. In mere moments a calm, pleasant day had turned in a red hell of flaming rocks and towering inferno across the neighborhood.

It had taken quite a bit of force with her shovel to get the Crox open, but she had a great idea for her sprite. She took hold of a vine from her ever growing garden and pulled it inside, connecting it to the sprite.

The sprite absorbed the vine and everything connected to it; meaning her entire garden. The result was a sprite of tangled planets of too many different kinds to identify all in a single glowing being. It was marvelous, and could thankfully use the venus flytraps as mouths to speak from.

While Gardensprite focused on preventing the flames from reaching the house, Valtina took out her sheers and cut the crystalline weed sprout that had formed as her entry item, entering the game as it shattered.

* * *

Risura kept his calm as the meteors started coming down. His positioning actually made him much less likely to get a direct hit from the meteors, and this knowledge made him comfortable in taking his time with the items.

His entry item appeared as a punching bag, and opening the Crux with his bare hands took only a bit of extra effort. He wondered for a moment if there was any point in putting something in the sprite now , or if he could wait until the game started.

The choice was made for him when a loud crash echoed through his hive as it shook from the impact. His hive hadn't been hit, but the land around it had, and that had caused the tunnels his lusus roamed into cave in.

Risura pried the door to the tunnels off its hinges and began lifting and tossing aside as much of the rubble as he could. Strong as he was, even his muscles were starting to grow sore from exertion by the time he found his now quiet and lifeless lusus. Risura hauled him aboveground, bringing him to the sprite.

He sighed in relief as he was absorbed by the sprite and returned to life, then took out the remaining stress of the moment on the entry item punching bag, shattering it with his bare fists and entering the game.

* * *

Mutosi was this close to completely and utterly losing her shit. It took all of her ironclad will not to throw a bitch-fit worthy of the gods about being the last one to enter the game when a fucking blue blood got to enter first.

She could see the messages from the others telling her it was just a coincidence that the highest blood cast of the team went in first and the lowest last, and she knew already it was bullshit.

The only thing that prevented her from going full tilt ballistic was a dose of fear when a meteor crashed into the side of her hive. Not just any side either, the side her lusus said in. it was the resulting cave in that had killed the massive scorpion more than the meteor itself, but the result was the same.

Thankfully the kernelsprite allowed her to return to life, and with a much more manageable size. Sighing with relief, Mutosi realized that her speeches and fits could wait until the sky wasn't literally attempting to kill her.

She swung her broom at the large fluffy rabbit that appeared as her entry item, completely ignoring the irony of it being a literal dust bunny, and entering the game as it shattered from the strike.

Now all members of the villain team had entered the game.


	8. Chapter 8

**Settle in my friends, this is gonna be a long one. And as a disclaimer, you may thank SylphofHope, Kess/Kay/9, and ParadoxLands on Tumblr for the names/descriptions of these lands. I did come up with five of them myself though ^^ Also, for those of you who know the classes and aspects, here's where you can really start speculating on the characters'. I've tried to have there be clues since chapter one, but here's where the more obvious clues start popping up.**

* * *

Brendon was loving the Boxcar Buffer he'd created. It was soaking up bullets better than any armor he'd ever heard about. The Droog-like imps were all armed and dangerous, but he'd already taken care of all the ones outside with his Fireaxe. As it turned out, dry lawn grass is flammable, and the imps aren't fireproof. On the downside he couldn't go anywhere but up, because stepping outside would mean being immediately roasted by the flames his axe had set off. On the bright side, killing all the imps had left him with more grist, some of the basic blue Build Grist, as well as a purple kind called Shale.

"Might wanna make some new gear before you head up," Droogsprite said as he lit a cigar, "You'll have a big guy blocking your way to the gate. Consider it the first real challenge of the game. And no offense to your current gear, but it ain't gonna cut it."

Brendon was tempted to argue, but figured that if anyone knew what they were talking about when it came to weaponry, it was a member of the Midnight Crew. He looked at what he had on him. His Wake Up Call shotgun, the Fire Axe, the figures for the last two members of the Midnight Crew, and all fourteen Felt figures (technically he was missing eight, and there were meant to be fifteen figures, but for reasons unknown to him, that figure did not exist).

His first idea was to combined Crowbar's figure, number 7, with his axe. Crowbar carried an enchanted crowbar that could cancel out time based abilities. Between that and being unbreakable, it'd be a great attention to his axe. This plan was ruined by a hidden shale imp he hadn't seen. It leapt from behind a small pile of debris that had formed and swung with a cuebat, knocking the figure out of his hands and into Droogsprite.

It was in that moment that Brendon learned that sprites could/would absorb not just the first, but also the second thing they came into contact with. Droogsprite's form changed, his face gaining a more angular look, and his hat creasing at odd angles. A number seven now appeared over the diamond symbol on his chest, and his bat and gun both began to glow red. He looked like a combination, a perfect fusion, of Diamonds Droog and Crowbar.

In a fit of frustration, Brendon fired both barrels into the imp, killing it with just the first. He sighed, looking back to.. Droobarsprite? He seemed remarkably unsettled by his current predicament, and considering he was literally a fusion of the minds of members from rival gangs, this was understandable. He seemed to be stable though, if perplexed and unhappy.

Turning back to his alchemy, he decided to try for something else. Itchy, number 1 of the Felt, was known for remarkable speed. Brendon combined the Wake Up Call with the Itchy figure, creating the Speed Shot, shaving tons of time off of his reload. He looked over the remaining figures and grabbed Cans, figure 15 known for his incredible strength. Coming the figure with the Speed Shot resulted in the Super Shotty, a double barrel needing only one second to reload and firing like a cannon blast.

But with enough grist left for one last combination, Brendon combined with Fireaxe with his figure of Spade Slick, AkA Jack Noir. He was practically the cover boy for blackrom relationships, and was by far the best in a fight out of the Midnight crew, if not the most physically strong. The result was the Spade Sparker, a powerful black metal blade that allowed the user to attack with the flames of their own aggression. He smirked at the thought of having found a way to literally weaponized his love for Furlok.

He headed up the stairs, reaching toe roof and finding that Droogsprite hadn't been kidding about the enemy blocking the gate. On the room was what the health bar identified as a Shale Ogre. It was roughly ten feet tall, and six across with muscles like several brick shit houses strung together. It carried a tommy gun in one hand, a cuestick in the other, and did not look pleased to see Brendon.

Brendon covered his face to protect it from the hail of bullets that his outfit only barely saved him from. He waited until the ogre had to stop to reload as the ogre walked forward to strike with its cuestick. Brendon fired twice with his shotty, the force of it blasting the cuestick away as he took out the Spade Sparker, slashing the air in front of him and sending a slash-wave of black fire the ogre.

The fire hit and began spreading over the ogre's body, only increasing in power as Brendon struck the ground, sending a jet of black fire across the roof towards the ogre, engulfing it in flame. It fired out randomly as Brendon fired again, both shots hitting the ogre and bringing its health down low enough for the fire to finish it off, the ogre reduced to grist.

Brendon panted, wincing as the adrenaline began to fade and he became aware of the pain in his body, as the suit hadn't been able to block all of the attacks.

"Not bad." Droobarsprite began healing him, a ray of light washing over him and repairing the damage to his body.

"Thanks." He said with a sigh of relief as the pain ceased. "What now?"

Droobarsprite pointed to the circular gate, "Through there. That'll take you to your land. Game starts for real once you're through."

Brendon nodded, walking over and touching the gate. There was a bright flash of light, and Brendon felt the ground shift under his feet. Looking around, he saw that he was no longer on his roof, he was standing on a platform, a very.. meaty platform. White bone fangs jutting from the fleshy ground in various places, some dripping with blood. As he looked across the land, it's name came to him instantly, as though he'd always known it.

 _LoMaF, Land of Martyrs and Fangs._

* * *

Furlok's battle with the ogre had been trivial at best. She'd combined her paintbrushes with a knife set from the kitchen, creating the Blade Brusher set, and had combined one of her paintings, one displaying a powerful armored warrior with a painting smock, creating an armored paint protector. This alone might have been overkill considering all her imps only attacks were biting with rodent-like teeth.

Once she'd farmed enough grist from the imps, she'd retrieved a box of fireworks, most of which were illegal for their intensity, and combined them with jars of paint. The result was a weapon called the SplatterBomb, of which she could make three. She'd only needed one at the moment though, throwing it onto the room with her mouse eared ogre and sitting back as the explosion of heat and color took the poor fucker apart.

Once he was gone, and she'd retrieved the grist, she climbed up onto the painted roof of her hive, gathering the grist and walking over to the gate. She touched it, and was brought to her land. She blinked, looking around at what appeared to be a marketplace, an old fashioned one like you'd find at a fare.

 _LoSaF, Land of Shops and Frogs._

* * *

Aspico's hive being full of harpy imps had been less than pleasing. She didn't like the idea of fighting enemies that bore resemblance to her loving lusus, but she supposed it was her fault for having put her into the sprite, or perhaps Jeff's for recommending they play this utterly demented game. She would absolutely have to have a few words with that boy whenever she was done here.

In keeping with the theme, she felt it appropriate to utilize elements of her lusus. She combined a feather from her with her outfit, creating the Wingsuit, which she combined with a cloak, creating the Harpy Harness. If item descriptions were to be believed, it would provide moderate defense as well as gliding capability. But that left the matter of her weaponry.

Her rapier was already proving to be only decent against the imps, and so she combined with a talon from her lusus, creating the Hunter Point. Then, in a motion she didn't even think about until it was done, she alchemized her rapier further. She took a book off the shelf that she'd purchased a long while ago to help her with her at the time new romantic interest. 'Beginner's Guide to Black Romance'. She combined the book with the Hunter's Point, creating the Pitch Piercer.

Aspico blushed deep olive at this, but refused to think that there was any hidden reason behind her actions. She'd just alchemized something odd in the heat of the moment, that was all. She supposed it could still be useful, and headed up to face her inevitably harpy-like ogre. She jumped to the side to avoid the ogre's flight towards her, the Harpy Harness letting her follow the breeze that it left to follow it, slashing at it with her Pitch Piercer.

She was slapped to the ground by its wing, and rolled to avoid the feathers it launched at her like blades. It flew down after her, just barely missing her as she jumped up, slashing at its wing and preventing it from taking back off. She carved the ogre's body as she moved around it avoiding hits, stabbing it through the back of the head, killing it instantly.

Once she'd gathered the grist, she walked over to the gate and entered her land, appearing in a lush grass field with a town in the distance that appeared to have gone run down.

 _LoCaF, Land of Conscious and Frenzy._

* * *

Lurabo had just barely managed to make it to her kitchen thanks to a lucky draw from her tarot deck. Her imps seemed to have random features from her lusus. Some had canine fangs, others had ape hands and feet, others had the twin-hooked tails, which had been responsible for the gash in her hip which she'd been able to deal by drawing The Hierophant.

In her panic, she'd discovered that she could take a deck of poker cards with her in her Deck-Kind strife deck, but at the moment didn't have much use for them. She looked around the room for something to alchemize, combining a glass cup, one of the fancy ones she never used, with her tarot cards. It didn't change the existing cards so much as it added the Minor Arcana-Cups to the deck. She drew, lifting the 7 of Cups, who's connection to imagination and illusion generated an illusion of Lurabo for the imps to chase while she worked on a strategy.

Once she'd psyched herself up, she hurried up to the roof, finding the ogre there with a canine head and the twin hooked tails. It barked and ran towards her, Lurabo jumped away, letting her telekinesis carry her out of the monster's attack range. One of the hook tails caught her leg and reeled her in. She drew her crook, smacking it's jaws away before it could bite down on her.

She drew from her tarot deck, getting 8 of Cups. The ogre wailed as pain spread across its body. She dropped down, drawing again, getting Strength. She grabbed the ogre by its leg and hefted it, her muscles screaming as she threw the ogre into the air, drawing the Magician and firing a blast of telekinetic energy, killing the ogre in mid air and letting the grist rain down on her.

After Chimerasprite healed her leg, Lurabo walked over to the gate and passed through. After the flash, she appeared on a well lit platform that appeared to be floating unsupported in void. The only way off the platform she could see was a massive ladder leading to another extremely well lit platform with nothing but darkness in between the two.

 _LoLaS, Land of Ladders and Spotlight._

* * *

Jeff had quite happily been out of his bedroom by the time the monsters showed up. The various imps had the traits of the four kinds of consorts, turtle shell, gator jaws, etc. He'd already alchemized his baseball bat with his posters of Jackie Robinson and Babe Ruth, creating the Slugger Slammer, a bat that he was pretty sure was nearly indestructible and sent imps flying on the few occasions they managed to get to a room before he did.

Unfortunately for the imps, by the time they manage to catch up with Jeff, he'd made it to his garage, where he kept his pitching machine. Under normal circumstances, the machine's automated baseball launches would hit with hardly enough force to annoy the monsters, less than that if it hit one with an armored turtle shell. But on this occasion, the machine had been alchemized with various machine parts Jeff had picked up from around the house, and had essentially been McGuyvered into a baseball turret.

With the invading imps reduced to grist, Jeff set to more alchemy, going to his collection room, looking over at the various dead things he'd gathered. It was only for studying really, but his friends didn't seem very comfortable with the fact that there was a room in his house full of dead parts. He combined a skull with a baseball, creating the SkullaBall, infusing it with necrotic power.

Jeff wheeled the baseball turret up the stairs to the ogre, letting the baseball barrage weaken it before batting the SkullaBall into its cracked shell to kill it. After gathering the grist, he walked through the gate, appearing on a metal floor with a cog beneath it.

 _LoGaK, Land Gears and Keys._

* * *

Arvis could hardly believe he was not yet dead. All his imps had extended, curved claws like his sprite, and in the first ten minutes of being within the game, he'd been all but flayed. His entire body was cut up, and he was only alive because his sprite was able to interpret him as helpless enough to require assistance on multiple occasions, and was capable of healing.

About the only thing good to have happened to him so far was his idea of combining the fish hook with the fishing rod, essentially created a full on hook blade. It was amazing, but he swiftly found that he was not amazing with it, only making it to his roof through sheer dumb luck on his part. And when he got there, seeing a shale ogre with four inch hooks jutting from its knuckles, he suddenly regretting even speaking to any of the others.

Arvis bolted back down the stairs to avoid the ogre. As he panicked on the stairs below the roof, an idea came to him. He used his hook blade to pry open the air vent and crawled through it, winding up immediately behind the ogre. He lashed out quickly, slashing the ogre's ankles and letting it fall off its feet. He rushed forward quickly, cutting at the monster's neck, killing it.

A cheap shot, perhaps, but Arvis felt like a fucking god as he collected the grist. Seeing the gate, Arvis walked over to it and passed through, appearing on a deep red patch of dirt. There was a street next to him leading towards a town. Said street looked upsetting like a trail of blood.

 _LoBaV, Land of Bonds and Veins._

* * *

Patior had thankfully managed to kill quite a few of his mechanized shale imps before they got close enough to return fire, his sniper rifle finally coming in handy. He'd had to pry it off of its position at the window, and found that his accuracy was slightly more geared towards its former location.

To help with this, he gathered the grist the imps dropped and began alchemizing, combining his rifle with his telescope, then with a knife from the kitchen, giving it a scope and a bayonet blade. As a final touch, he combined it with an air compressor to increase the firing power of the gun, creating the Air Target Bayonet Sniper.

By this point he was, of course, out of grist. But with his new weapon in hand, he collected a few potentially useful items from around his room for later, an umbrella, a set of weights, a few books, a set of tools, storing all of them in his code modus.

Once he'd gathered enough to feel like he was prepared for whatever might come next, he began climbing up his hive towards the gate, more accurately, towards the cyborg ogre guarding it.

The ogre was massive, with metallic plating across its body. It's left eye was clearly a targeter, both shoulders had rockets to fire, and its right arm housed a hidden turret gun; all features that his lusus had.

Thankfully, the ogre didn't seem capable of noticing him until he actually climbed fully onto the roof. Taking advantage of the enemy AI, Patior took aim with his rifle while still on the stairs, shooting out the ogre's eyes, then damaging its systems one by one until it was essentially dismantled, held together only by the meat between the metal plating.

With this done, the blue blood stepped fully onto the roof. The ogre took one step forward, then dropped onto the ground, vanishing into grist, which Patior happily collected before stepped through the gate. He was immediately drenched by the torrential downpour in his land, and was quickly glad that he'd brought an umbrella.

 _LoRaR, Land of Rust and Rain._

* * *

Java was having issues with her imps. It wasn't that they were especially powerful, as they were the first enemies in the game. It was that their mobility made them difficult to actually attack. They all either had plane wings or rocket boosted feet, allowing them to fly around Java, taking swoops to attack her.

Eventually she managed to knock enough out the air with her brass knuckles to get some alchemy going. She gathered a meat tenderizer and a pair of drone plane boosters, combining them with her brass knuckles and creating the Bloody Knuckles, powerful, reinforced brass strikers with mini-boosters in them to increase the striking power.

Before heading up the stairs though, she took the second drone booster and combined them with her boots, creating the Burst Boots, flight enabled footwear. Well, less flight and more controlled acceleration in any given direction, including up.

This done, she headed up the stairs, using the boosters on her feet and her knuckles to beat down a few more shale plane imps before reaching the roof, where she saw her first ogre. It to had plane wings sprouting from its back, and once Java was on the roof, it took off into the air with a roar.

Java considered just sprinting hell for leather towards the gate, but figured that the game wouldn't allow such a thing. With no distance weapons, she didn't have much that could handle the rocket powered ogre.

She did have a plan though. She burst into the air as the ogre tried to ram her, grabbing onto one of its wings as it shot upwards. Java grit her teeth as her bones struggled not to separate from the force of the monster's upward movement.

When it had slowed enough for her to function, she drove her knuckle into the wing of the beast with as much force as she could. There was a cracking sound and a groan from the ogre, and java repeated the process three times before jumping off and bursting towards the roof.

She managed to land with only one sprained ankle as the ogre flew towards her. The damage to its wing caused it to break apart when it reached a good speed, and it spiralled out of control, crashing to the roof and thankfully disappearing into a cloud of grist rather than showering shrapnel over Java.

Pilotsprite flew over, healing the damage to Java and praising her on the victory. "Top level tactics there." She said, Java smiling at the acknowledgement as she waited for the healing to finish.

When it had, Java stood up, gathered her grist, and went through the gate. She appeared in a field, staring directly at a giant table fan about twenty feet tall, evidently plugged into the ground.

 _LaFaB, Land of Fans and Biplanes._

* * *

Dustine couldn't decide if he'd lucked out or not. On the bright side, his imps didn't seem to have gained any incredible powers from Mirthsprite, just silly faces and haunting laughter. On the downside, in order to proceed, he had to crush dozens of little imps that all bore resemblance to what was essentially his religious icon.

A combination of Mirthsprite's words (more his laughter, as the clown demon didn't seem capable of human speech) and Dustine's growing frustration with the imps attacking him eventually got him to begin flattening them with his mace, which he quickly alchemized with his second edition Book of Mirth to create the Mirthful Mace, a bludgeoning weapon infused with the amusing powerful of the clowns of old.

Weapon in hand, Dustine began tearing through his house, smashing the clown-like shale imps with reckless abandon, finding an extreme level of catharsis in having something to actually fight, being able to take out a little pent up frustration on someone without anyone he knew fighting out.

He got so caught up in his rampage that he actually had to stop for a breathing before heading out to battle the mirthful ogre that had appeared to guard his gate. It's limbs were long and striped with monochrome, its forearms thicker and clearly stronger than the rest of him.

It roared and drove its fist towards Dustine, who jumped back, striking at the weak part of its arm with his mace. It dislocated with a sickening crack, and Dustine ran forward, slamming him mace into the creature's hip, then finally into its skull to kill it.

He panted as he gathered the grist, heading through the gate in hopes of there being more for him to fight there. He appeared standing in a marsh. The land was dark and foul smelling, and the sounds of battle could be heard in the distance.

 _LoMaW, Land of Moats and War._

* * *

Risura did not like that his imps had the features of his lusus. Long, thin pointed claws sprouted from their hands, and they lashed out at the jade blood ruthlessly. He guarded with his arms, and while the attacks stung, he could endure.

As he used fist-kind for battle, his combat with the mole like imps involved a series of well placed haymakers and backhands, as well as one flying downward strike towards an imp who'd been trying to sneak away for a surprise attack.

Taking the grist they left behind, Risura combined his clothes with a medical kit, creating the Curative Clothing. While he fought through his hive, the clothing passively healed the damage done to him.

He found and stored his lucky book, as well as his flashlight, and a few other miscellaneous items in his dice modus for later, then headed up to fight the ogre guarding the gate on the roof of his hive.

It was much larger, with noticeably stronger claws. But it had inherited something else from his lusus: blindness. The ogre couldn't see, and was sniffing the air for signs of the troll's presence. Risura grinned, rolling dice of his modus. He rolled a lucky seven and his deodorant was ejected from the modus.

It landed across the roof, breaking when it landed and spraying the smell everywhere. The ogre roared and turned towards it, hurrying over and slashing at nothing as Risura snuck up behind it, leaping at the monster from behind.

He grabbed it around the neck and pulled back hard, essentially suplexing the ogre. Unfortunately this by itself didn't kill the beast, and he was nearly knocked off the roof by a powerful slash of its claws.

He managed to dodge the follow up strike, letting the ogre bury its claws in the roof. A powerful punch to said claws broke them off, and Risura pulled one free, throwing it like a javelin into the Ogre's eye. It howled in pain before Risura jumped up and punched the claw the rest of the way through, killing it instantly. He gathered the grist, and walked through his gate.

He couldn't see shit when he appeared, his natural luminescence letting him see the dark soil beneath him, the only sign that he'd gone anywhere and wasn't just lost beyond the veil.

 _LoDaL, Land of Darkness and Laughter._

* * *

Valtina had never been more proud of herself for choosing the Garden-kind strife deck. All of her imps had taken on features of her vast garden. Some had vine-like whip arms or rooted legs, others had venus flytrap or pitcher plant mouths. Some were leaking sap or covered in bark and thorns. Some were even covered in fungus or just growing flower petals from their bodies.

And this allowed her to take the phrase 'cutting down the enemy' to a more literal meaning, as she severed vines and roots with her shears, flattening imps with her shovel and stabbing her spade into the ones that got too close.

When she'd cleared out all but the ogre at the top, she set to alchemizing. Combining her gardening gloves with a set of flowers resulted in the petal palms. The gloves had taken on the color of the flowers, but passed that she wasn't sure what use they had.

Next she combined her wood saw, which she used so very rarely because Brendon lived nearby and was always happy to cut down any invasive tree she found growing, with her shovel, creating the Sawvel, a serrated saw bladed shovel.

She combined her spade with a jackknife to created the Spade Blade. She fused her shears with her seeding drill to create the Drill Cutter, and finally she combined roughly ten or so different poisons, used normally to kill weeds or insects, together with a spray can, creating the Spew of Unforgiving Toxic.

When she reached her roof, she found the ogre rooted to the floor, with his fists on the end of several different thorned vines and his head replaced with a massive venus flytrap. He looked disturbing like Audrey Two from Little Shop of Horrors.

When it tried to crush her with its vines, she side stepped the strike and cut its vine arm off with her Sawven, deflecting the follow up attack with her Spade Blade. She spun on her heels and threw the Drill Cutter, watching the blade spin as it buried itself in the chest of the vegetation ogre and cut deep into it.

As it recoiled in pain from this attack, Valtina ran across the roof, aiming the spray from the Toxic Spew at its root. The roots began to shrivel and die, the ogre dropping to the ground with a groan of a pain, writhing for a moment before vanishing into a pile of grist, which she happily collected before heading through the gate. In a flash, she was standing on a rock in what looked like the bombed out remains of a town.

 _LoGaR, Land of Glyphs and Ruin._

* * *

Mutosi was slightly relieved that her imps all gained the traits of her lusus. As confident as she was in her combat potential with a broom, she didn't feel remotely ready to combat an army of imps, half armed with scorpion pincers, the other with venomous scorpion tails. Not in a straight fight.

But thankfully, as a bronze blooded troll, she had a rather helpful special ability. Brown bloods could commune with animals and inforce their will over them. As the insect-like imps surrounded her, she closed her eyes and focused. The imps all lowered their claws and tails, no longer hostile towards Mutosi. They followed her commands, killing themselves to give Mutosi grist for alchemy.

Mutosi used it to combined her broom with one of their scorpion claws, as well as venom she already had stored from her lusus. The result was the Scorpio's Cleaner, a venomous brook with sharpened bristles and a pointed handle. She smiled, using her powers to direct the remaining imps up to the roof. The ogre had both pincers and a tail, but it couldn't handle the dozens of imps all attacking it at once, pinching and stinging it.

Only about four imps were left by the time the ogre was killed, which Mutosi killed before they could get any ideas. She rubbed her head to clear the throbbing that had started to form from controlling so many for so long. She gathered the grist and went through the gate, appearing on top of a massive sand dune with blazing heat beating down on her.

 _LoDaC, Land of Desert and Cathedrals._


	9. Chapter 9

Brendon's curiosity about his new planet rapidly became replaced with a mix of excitement and frustration when he found the first wave of imps. He felt that he'd mastered the shale imps he'd fought in the Medium, but was now faced with monsters called Mercury and Cobalt imps.

In addition to having a new coloration-light grey for the former, deep blue for the latter-they also had more combat potential. They still had Droog's machine gun, but now had various other features.

The cobalt imp was flying in the air with feathered wings, and also had a scorpion's tail. There were also two mercury imps still on the ground, one with a turtle shell and long curved claws, one with an alligator mouth and mechanical arms.

The Boxcar Buffer still repelled most of the damage from the bullets, but the imps' new features made them harder to deal with. The mercury imps bit and slashed at him, the cobalt swooping down to sting him.

He managed to bring down the mercury imps, keeping Furlok in his thoughts as he spun the Spade Sparker, burning the imps away. The cobalt was harder to deal with because of its mobility, and he took two stings before managing to nail it with a shot from his Shotty, killing it.

He gathered the build, mercury, and cobalt grist, panting from the venom now in his system. He staggered across the fleshy ground of his land, leaning against one of the fangs that sprouted from the ground like plants. He could see the town in the distance, and headed for it.

He was surprised to find it inhabited not just by humanoid looking people, but by ones that appeared see through and ghostly; like spirits. They all seemed to have a sense of grim resignation about them, all silent unless spoken to.

He walked through the town, evidently cared out of bleached white fangs. He found a shop, and found to his surprise that the imps had been giving more than just rist. With each kill, he'd been receiving a small about of cash called Boon Dollars. He happily traded ten of them for an anti-venom to cure himself, and another fifteen for a night at the town's inn to rest.

He sat down on the creaky old bed of the inn, Droobarsprite looking around the town still. He decided to put his new grist to use before he laid down to sleep off the soreness of the battle, combining his boots with the Felt figures of three and five, known as Trace and Fin.

Trace could see trails left behind by people's pasts, letting him follow their past actions. Fin could follow people's future trails, seeing into the future and messing with them through time. Combining their figures with his boots created the Farwalkers, boots that would reportedly always keep him on track. He would test them out later though, needing now to rest.

* * *

Furlok found that her land was indeed living up to its name. There seemed to be two different zones on LoSaF, the market zone, which was a maze of different shopkeepers, all of whom appeared as anthro raccoon creatures.

The other was the frog zone, an empty expanse of nothing but fields and frogs. In the distance, Furlok could see a massive building with what looked like yet another frog o it, a massive stone one carved into it.

Furlok also found, to her disappointment, that the shopping zone didn't actually qualify as a town, and she could indeed be jumped by imps within it. The shopkeepers didn't lift a finger to help as Furlok battled white alabaster imps, who had not only the rodent features of the shale imps, but also grinning clown faces, long mole claws, and vines that could extend from their bodies.

Furlok's Brushware set made short work of them, and she obtained quickly some extra grist and boon dollars. She attempted to use her new found money to purchase a set of knives from the nearest shopkeeper, wanting to combined them with her brushware to make them even stronger.

"Back!" The shopkeeper hissed, "Back! There's been too much stolen from me by thieves like you, back!" Furlok frowned, holding out the money she planned to spend, "I just want to buy-" "Back thief!" The raccoon threw a cube of some kind of stone at Furlok to scare her off.

Furlok jumped back, painting the block of ore with her sketch modus and keeping it for herself. She stuck her tongue out at the shopkeeper and walked off, looking for a shop that she could buy from.

Furlok quickly found that her encounter with the first shopkeeper would in fact be the running trend with all of them. None of them would let Furok get within arms' reach of their stands, all assuming she was a thief out to steal their wares even when she was literally walking forward with her money in her hands.

Furlok ended up proving them right by the end of her first hour on the planet. After two more fights, one of which was with a fucking airborne tar impo with jet boosters for wings, Furlok was fed up with the hostility. She needed shit and she was going to get it one way or another.

She tossed her last splatterbomb into the air, letting it explode in a display of color and lights. While the shopkeepers were distracted by it, she sprinted through the market stands, grabbing as much as she could before bolting towards the frog zone.

Once she was safe, she found that she'd stolen a set of daggers, a kaleidoscope, and a paint roller. She smiled at this, combining her brushware with the daggers to create the Bladed Brushware, the kaleidoscope with the goggles she'd brought; pre-alchemized with her computer for hands off messaging, and creating the Spectrumicles. A set of colorful eyewear that would let her view the entire color spectrum, while still allowing for hands off computing.

Lastly, she combined the paint Roller with the Ore block she'd been given, making the RollOver, a large, dense painting device for rolling over enemies. Satisfied with her alchemy, and that she wouldn't be attacked while in the frog zone, the teal blooded laid down for a quick rest.

* * *

Aspico found the inhabitants of her lan to be quite odd. They were all humanoid felines, and they all seemed very.. Artistic would be the word used for politeness, but Aspico could have also described them as schizophrenic.

One moment they were painting, the next they stood up so abruptly they knocked the canvas into the dirt and ruined the it as they began dancing to a tuneless song being performed by other felines who'd moments before been attempting to cook. It was rather upsetting to watch after the first few moments.

Aspico focused on battling the imps surrounding the town. They seemed to be of the rust and chalk variety, some with her Harpysprite's wings, but also having long hooked tails, scorpion pincers, and cuesticks in hand and smooth salamander skin.

Her Pitch Piercer was strangely effective in combat, which Aspico refused to think about. Once she'd gathered enough grist, she began combining a few more things, combining her Harpy Harness with her moirallegiance guide-a book detailing all the ends and outs of the pale romance quadrant, to create the Diamonds Dressings.

She then with her auspisticism guide-the instructional guide to the ashen quadrant, to create the Clear Mind Covers, a long, protective robe of a simple gray that would steady the mind of the wearer.

'Interesting choice.' Said a voice from with a speaker Aspico couldn't see."Who said that?" She asked allowed, receiving no response at first, and seeing no one as she looked around. '

Do not be alarmed, all of you have one of us,' the voice, which Aspico recognized as female, said, 'you just seem to be the only one who can hear us. The others take advice from us without knowing, taking action or thinking thoughts from them while thinking it was their own idea. It's been quite odd for us really.'

"I see.." Aspico said, "I take it you and your associates are a part of this game that we were heretofore unaware of?" 'I suppose we are, though I'm confused by your calling this a game.' She replied.

"Interesting." Aspico said as she saw a rust ogre approach from over the hill, "Feel free to continue speaking while I fight, I can multi-task." She said as she rushed towards the enemy.

* * *

No sooner had Furlok's eyes closed on LoSaF did they open again on Derse. She still didn't know how she knew the name of the dark purple kingdom she woke up in when she slept, but she'd been appearing there whenever she slept for years.

She'd thought it was just a dream at first, until she found that many of her friends had versions of themselves sleeping there as well. It seemed that only Furlok able able to appear there when she slept, but she hoped that the others would be waking on Derse soon when they slept within the game.

She wasn't sure how she knew that the game and Derse were related, nor did she really care. Her dream self rarely cared about the same things as her waking self, with the two obvious exceptions of painting and Brendon, whose dream self was sleeping in the spire next to Furlok's.

She'd learned young not to paint as her dream self, at least not without setting up her canvas first in the waking world, as if she didn't, she'd wake up with paint covering the walls. She could, however, still visit Brendon.

She walked across the purple brick room to the window. It was barred over, but Furlok had pried the bars off with her brushes years ago. She looked down, seeing that the coast was clear, and quickly scurried across the rail between the spire she slept in, and the one containing Brendon, hoping her kismesis would be awake finally.

* * *

 **Apologies for the vague language here and there, but there isn't much better a way to introduce certain elements of the canon, lol. As always, you'll have to visit Sinful's Drabbles for the lemon scene of this chapter. Those who read Homestuck will likely already know a class and an aspect from these players just from the terminology, lol.**


	10. Chapter 10

Patior was glad that he'd brought his umbrella. Admittedly it wasn't much help at first, the water was falling so terencially that it was essentially like trying to put out an inferno with a water pistol. After alchemizing with one of the weights he'd brought through, the Heavy Weight umbrella was more useful as an actual umbrella, if more strenuous to actually use. He continued through the rain, knowing only from vague silhouettes in the rain that there was a town in the distance.

This rain was terrible for his rifle, and any combat he did along the way was handled primarily through his bayonet rather than firing; and was infinitely less efficient. Thankfully his well trained reflexes made it easier to actually get to the town without any of the enemies getting the jump on him. He did manage to clear a wide path with sniper fire after he had his umbrella, though he wasted far too many rounds trying to actually hit his targets. This rain was already grating on his nerves and he was barley an hour into the game.

The blue blood found that the rain was somehow less intense on the town itself, petering off more and more as he got closer, making it much easier to see, but still a wet, uncomfortable mess. The city itself seemed to be having more issues with the rain than Patior though. It was built of once great and well kept iron structure which had, unsurprisingly, now rusted over horribly. None of the consorts were outside, save for the engineers that were attempting to, piece by piece, replace every individual piece of the town with different, unrusted metal.

Patior could tell from the engineers that the consorts were all distinctly ape-like in form. He wondered for a moment if he should let them know that their task was useless, as the metal they put in would rust just as badly as the metal they were removing, perhaps before they even finished swapping all the pieces out; they'd never be finished. He supposed it was their own fault for making their town out of the weak metal in the first place, and continued on to look for more monsters.

* * *

Java was more perplexed by her land than anything else. She supposed the name said it all really, Land of Fans and Biplanes, both of which were certainly present. The rest of the terrain was a green field leading to a town, the giant fans taking the place of trees. As she walked, Java noticed that none of the biplanes were landing. This wouldn't have been a big deal, but none of them seemed to be doing anything, just flying endlessly.

Java realized what was happening when one of them did try to land. The wind let off by the fan blew the biplane back up into the air, preventing it from reaching the land. No matter what the reptilian consorts did, they were trapped in the air. Even shutting the plane off and going into a death dive wouldn't let them reach land, as the aerodynamic nature of the planes still made it possible for the fans to keep them airborne. Their last ditch plan was jumping out of the planes, which thankfully none of them tried, because the term 'death dive' would take on a more literal meaning if they did.

As Java walked towards the small village in the distance, the urge to chat made itself known. It was admittedly never far from the surface, and she knew ignoring it would only mean giving it a chance to become full fledged longing, which Aspico had advised against when Java had explained in. After making sure the area was clear of monsters, she sat down and accessed her chat client through her aviators, glad she'd alchemized it with her computer.

 **[Born2Fly has messaged PowerhousepartyAnimal]**

 **BF: Hey, PA, you there?**

 **PA: Oh hey! Wasn't expecting a chat during the game.**

 **BF: Yeah well, I don't think any of us were expecting the meteor storm that's probably fucking up the planet right now. Except maybe Jeff? I'm gonna need to strong arm some answers out of your teammate later, and I won't hesitate to get violent if you try and stop me XP**

 **PA: Stop you? I'm just as confused about this as you, I'd fucking help XD**

 **BF: Lol, nice. Can't be conspiring you know, we're on different teams remember? I'm a villain, mwahahaha!**

 **PA: Awfully upbeat for someone who thinks the world is burning up around them.**

 **BF: Pff, and you're one to talk. The world didn't give me shit but a dream I couldn't a reach and a migraine, you're leaving behind, like, three different friend groups by being here.**

 **P** **A: Right, my other friends..**

 **BF:I mean, I'm absolutely glad you did, you'd have been burned up if you didn't, I just mean.. okay I'm not totally sure what I mean.**

 **PA: It's fine, villains don't always make sense remember? Maybe you're just an agent of chaos villain.**

 **BF: Heh, no need to try and put together a save for me. If I crash and burn, I crash and burn. But you know what they say about crashes?**

 **PA: Flaming horrible death?**

 **BF: No! Well yes, but I meant 'any crash you walk away from a good landing'.**

 **PA: Oh, right, I knew that, I was just testing you.**

 **B** **F: Suuurrreee. So, what's your planet? P**

 **A: LoBaV, Land of Bonds and Veins. You?**

 **BF: LoFaB, because I'm fabulous~ P**

 **A: Can't disagree, but what really?**

 **BF: Land of Fans and Biplanes.**

 **PA: Oh wow, it just actually made a world around your hobby.**

 **BF: I assumed it did for all of us, I guess you're not much into anatomy then?**

 **PA: Fuck no, I get creeped out a little whenever I see my own veins, I don't need to be looking at them every time I look down.**

 **BF: Welp, guess you're SOL. Better luck next time~**

 **PA: Luck's never really helped me much. B**

 **F: Well if that's your attitude, please substitute my previous statement for, 'Better get to work making the place better for yourself~'. Better?**

 **PA: Marginally. BF: Better than nothing!**

Java was glad that her flight helmet covered most of her face. Benign though the conversation was, she always got a little red in the face when she and Arvis were chatting alone. She made a mental note to message Aspico later on for more advice. Just because the world had probably ended didn't mean her social life, and her potential love life, had to.

* * *

Dustine was enjoying his world perhaps a bit too much. Normally, whenever something worked him up, he could only spend a little time wailing on combat dummies with his mace or working out before he'd have to go do something, almost inevitably something tedious or in need of his 'relaxed' persona, which would just feed back into the stress he was trying to work off in the first place.

Nut here on LoMaW, there was nothing to do but keep fighting. He shouted verses from the good book at the top of his lungs as he smashed through the imps as quickly as they piled up. He was unknowingly flinging his supplies away, as his Verse modus would here him preaching and eject whatever item was linked to the verse he was reciting without his knowledge, but that would be frustration for later. For now, he was just enjoying himself.

His planet may have been a muddy, running, generally uncomfortable place, but barreling through it berserker style was enjoyable on an almost zen level, made annoying only by the flying imps who killed his momentum and patience with as much ferocity as he killed their bodies in return. And then, upon reaching a bridge overlooking one of the namesake moats, he came to an impasse.

It seemed that the town was guarded by a massive humanoid toad man. He was built like a brick shit house, but the ogre who'd been guarding the gate to LoMaW had been built like three stacked together, so Dustine didn't think it would be any problem. He charged at the toad, bringing his Mirthful Mace down onto him.

The attack bounced off of the toad man like he'd been swinging with an inflatable hammer. The toad man drove his fist into Dustine's gut, knocking the wind out of him. Perhaps just to add insult to injury, the toad bouncer then lifting Dustine up and sent him hurtling into the sludge filled moat. Dustine knew that Mirthsprite could heal his wounds, broken bones, and possible infection, but his pride would be extremely damaged after that debacle.


	11. Chapter 11

Lurabo had drawn The Fool to get rid of the first few imps she came across. They'd been marble imps with scorpion claws, twin hooked tails, and rodent teeth. The power of The Fool card sent all of them wandering off of the platform they were on and into the void of nothing beneath it, killing them all. Looking around, her land was composed entirely of deep pits and platforms suspended and connected by bridged, with lights shining from an unknown source as though to highlight specific areas on the land. Lurabo supposed she couldn't fault the name for inaccuracy.

She climbed up the ladder nearest to her, using a bit of physical ability and a majority of telekinesis to make up for her lack of strength. At the top of the ladder, she found two things. The first was a Rust Basilisk, a brown, serpentine monster with a canine mouth, mole claws, a scorpion point at the end of its tail, mouse ears, and a robotic scanner over its eye.

The other item on the platform was a pedestal with a purple orbed magic wand. Lurabo didn't have a wand kind strife specibus, but the wand could be used in alchemy if only she could get passed the basilisk. Fighting it was a no go, but perhaps she could tip the odds. She started by alchemizing her outfit with The Star card, infusing it with the cards power of balance, optimism, and insightfulness, creating the Rising Star Robe.

It was also infused with the card's connection to pleasure and spiritual love, but she didn't think those though be particularly helpful in the present moment as she climbed up to face the rust enemy. The basilisk hissed at her and slithered towards her for combat. Lurabo drew, getting The Chariot, which allowed her to charge into the rust basilisk and slam against it light a freight train.

With a little telekinetic push, made stronger by Rising Star Robe, the Rust Basilisk was knocked off the platform and onto the platform below. It wasn't killed, but between the charge and the damage from the fall, it's probably be easy to finish off when Lurabo had to climb back down. At least, she hoped it would.

The yellow blood took the wand, combining it with her tarot deck to add the Minor Arcana Wand set to the deck. Getting an idea from this, she used the last of her current grist to combined The Magician card with her basic crook, creating the Mystic Staff.

A chance to test out her new wand set and her mystic staff arouse within seconds, a flock of airborne Wax Imps flying at her with airplane wings. She drew the Four and Five of wands, combining dissatisfaction with quarrel to make the imps begin battling each other. She drew again while they were busy killing each other, activating the Ten of Wands at the three imps remaining, filling them with pain and causing them to land on the platform, making them easy targets for the magical blasts from her staff.

With them killed, Lurabo turned to the Rust Basilisk circling the ladder, letting her mind fill with the optimism of the robes, not minding the small shudder of pleasure that accompanied it, and jumped down from the platform to fight.

* * *

Jeff had been surprisingly lucky with monster encounters as he walked across the clockwork terrain of LoGaK. Just as he'd accidentally stumbled into a horde of shale, mercury, and rust imps, topped off with a shale ogre. His turret baseball shooter could have handled a lot of it, but he would have still probably been utterly destroyed by them. Would have, if not for the features of the LoGaK terrain.

It seemed that, once an hour, every hour, on the hour, the mechanical environment shifted. Towns, hills, continents, the entire planet would rotate with a rather loud, jarring clicking sound. As the monsters tried to jump Jeff, the rotation hit, the land between him and the monsters opening up and causing them all to be dropped into the mechanisms, grinding them into grist between the gears.

Jeff whistled, "Yeesh. Poor timing." He said as the land closed back up. Checking his watch, he realized that the gear turning had actually been a few seconds late. He wondered what the cause of that was, but supposed it had saved him. Looking across the metallic surface of the land, he saw a town sitting on a turning gear, and figured he could get a bit of information from there.

* * *

Arvis combined the gamer's cheat book with his compass, creating the Gamer Guider, a gadget allowing him to navigate his land, since the entire world was essentially a video game. His sprite had fucked off to lord only knew where, so he was gonna have to learn how to get around LoBaV by himself. He'd combined a few different materials he'd found around his and to create a proper bladed hook sword, finding it remarkably good against the imps.

He made a note to avoid the blood river. Not just because it was, well, a river of blood, but because when he'd tried to follow it from closer to the edge, a slick black tendril covered in spikes shot from below the surface and tried to drag him into the river. He'd managed to cut the tendril and sprinted off in the other direction. He'd been on the edge of a meltdown after that, but his conversation with Java over the chat had made it easier for him to calm down.

Task one would be getting to the town and getting items for better gear. He'd take on the rest as it came up. Hook Sword in hand, he took off towards the town, following the Gamer Guide to follow the safer routes.

* * *

 **Yes, Jeff's land was originally Gears and Steam, I realized the typo only after it was posted, and I've now corrected it.**


	12. Chapter 12

Risura had limited use for alchemy, as his weapons were his fists. His only need for the combination mechanic of the game was to make gear to make the process of fighting in hand to hand easier. He'd used various items he'd gathered in the long dark streets of LoDaL to upgrade his outfit, so now the outfit, the Cure All Coverings, healed his body much faster, increased his physical power slightly, and acted as a durable armor. It wouldn't do well against sharp, targeted attacks, but so long as he didn't give the enemies time to think, he'd be fine.

He'd also combined a crystal he'd found with his flashing, creating a much more powerful light source, able to illuminate up to thirty feet of the thick, almost tangible darkness that strangled his land. Until exploring, he hadn't even known how many buildings there were, the shadows making them impossible make out. Granted, the newt-like consorts of his land weren't exactly helpful. Every building he found seemed to be a bar or comedy club or some variation, all the consorts laughing their asses off at nothing in particular.

He tried multiple times to figure out what the hell they were going on about, resisting the urge to suplex the laughing morons into the bar stools. The teachings of his good book spoke against such things. There was no need for it. He supposed Dustine would probably have liked his planet, laughter was basically his thing. He would never understand the odd, clown based religion, but if it made Dustine happy, he could tolerate it, even when it conflicted with his own faith.

Shaking his head of these thoughts, he went out to look for some enemies, wanting a little more grist to hopefully alchemize a way towards progress. He listened carefully, shutting off his natural jade blood glowing so he vanished into the darkness. His eyes adjusted quickly to it, and he saw that a Crude Ogre was approaching. It had scorpion pincers, twin hooked tail, a sharp beak, and reptilian, crocodile legs.

Risura aimed his crystalline flashlight to a nearby post. The street lights on the Land of Darkness and Laughter admittedly didn't seem to do much at all on their own, but he'd discovered an interesting feature of their seemingly empty lights. He flashed his light at it, and it began to project that light in all directions. The Crude Ogre wasn't close enough to be blinded by the light, but it did focus on it instead of Risura, unable to see the beam of light connecting the flashlight to the post from the brilliance it was letting off.

The Crude Ogre rushed forward, its tail raising and slashing through the base of the post, pincers snapping the length of it into three pieces. Risura sprung into action, leaping from the ground and grabbing the ogre's tail by its hooks. Planting his feet on the ogre's chest, he used its own weight against it and pulled it down, essentially flipping the Crude Ogre and bashing its head against the ground.

He quickly moved, keeping hold of the tail as he grunted with the force of pulling it. With one powerful pull, he was able to jerk the body of the Crude Ogre in one direction, then use the momentum to begin spinning with it before letting go, causing the ogre to go flying into the air. With some difficulty from the darkness, Risura watched the ogre fly, fall, and dissolve into grist as it landed in the street.

Collecting the grist, Risura figured he should ask his teammates and/or friends (since the separate teams thing didn't really seem to be a real functional part of the game, and he was sure people on the heroes team would help him if he asked) if they knew what he should be doing other than bashing monsters about. He took out his Grubtop after a nice roll with his Dice Modus and started messaging.

* * *

Valtina hadn't seem much combat since appearing on the Land of Glyphs and Ruin, evidently in the 'ruin' section of things. There'd been a few Mercury imps right at the start, then not much of anything as she trekked across the wide expense of dirt, stone, and dead grass that seemed to make up large swaths of LoGaR's surface. Whenever she did come across an enemy, they were never one of the ones that had inherited plant-like features from her sprite. Even villainous plant life couldn't survive in the wastelands of LoGaR it seemed.

But this only made her more curious about the G in her lands name, the glyphs. Unless she was mistaken, glyphs were a sort of magic writing, or something to do with magic at least. She wondered if she would be developing magic powers during this game. If she did, she sincerely hoped they weren't to do with creating more wasteland, as she'd been on LoGaR less than a day and was already sick of looking at the place.

For this reason, when she saw signs of actual plant life, hell, of life in general, she started full tilt sprinting towards it; though she blushed lightly from the thought that if one of her friends had seen her do it, it would probably have looked like she was just fixated on being around plant life. Nevertheless, she ran forward, seeing what looked like a town surrounded by the only non-dead plants she'd seen on her planet; lush green grass, colorful flowers, healthy looking trees, the works.

And at the very edge of it, a gang of four grey Dust Imps and one bulky lime stone ogre. One of LoGaR's consorts, a defenseless humanoid snake-like boy who'd probably just been attempting to gather food from the planted section of the land, had been caught between the monsters, and was about to be hurt. Valtina's pitchfork was thrown and embedded in the ogre's eyes before it could attack, her Sawvel coming down onto the first imp's head, cutting it down in seconds.

The other three imps were on her in seconds, but she hadn't rushed in recklessly. A burst from her weed killing spew kept them at a distance, as even if they didn't have plant features, poison was still poison. Face mask on to protect her, and her spare given to the consort boy, Valtina rushed through the poison smog she'd let out, jamming her Spade Knife into one imp's throat driving her drill sheers through the back of another, and giving the third, which did in fact have plant features, another burst of weed killer, sending it to the ground.

She hurried to the ogre, Sawvel cutting through its right leg as it pulled the pitchfork from its eyes, bringing it to the ground. Drill sheers between the eyes finished it off. She collected the grist and waited for the poison to fade before going over to the consort boy and helping him up. Seeing a wound on his leg, she reached out, wrapping her gloves around it. Energy flowed from the Pedal Palms, or at least she assumed it was from them, and healed the boy's wound. He smiled up at her, "Thank you so much, how can I ever repay you?"

Valtina smiled, "Mind telling me what exactly is happening on this planet?"

* * *

Mutosi was getting bored with her planet. And not just because it was composed of equal parts features hot as fuck desert and boring cathedrals where her camel consorts preached about BS that made no sense. She could tolerate that if the combat weren't so fucking boring. She supposed it was her fault at least partly, as the majority of the enemies had some animalistic feature in them, and her natural brown blood communing ability gave her complete control over any animalistic enemy, letting her turn them on any that weren't.

Because of this, she was able to rapidly upgrade her broom with various items, making it less of an ironic statement and more of a brute force weapon; not that anyone would be able to know. It still looked like a normal, slightly frayed broom.

As she considered challenging herself by going into battles without using her communing powers, she decided to take a break, finding a corner of shade being cast by one of the cathedrals-as going inside would mean listening to more camel preaching-and opening her Grubtop to do a little chatting.

 **[MighWay has entered the chat]**

 **LS: dammit, was hoping to be done before she logged out X:(**

 **B2F: I warned you not to jinx it, now look where you are.**

 **PN: Could have been avoided with direct messaging; you were practically baiting it.**

 **MW: And what exactly are you talking about that you didn't want me around,**

 **LS: why do you assume there would be a specific reason not to want you around? you're just unpleasant generally XXP**

 **MW: Book loving bitch,**

 **B2F: Hey, calm down, we're in an alliance remember? MW, LS was just trying to get a few opinions on what to do on his planet.**

 **MW: Pff, What, Fucking lost, Just start glowing,**

 **LS: first of all, it's too fucking dark for even me to light up with my charming self. second, even if i could, i've got no idea what the objective of this game is, so it wouldn't help X:X**

 **PN: From what I've seen, I think all our lands have different objects based on what's on the planet. I can already tell mine's probably gonna involve restoring the life to this half dead rock of a planet.**

 **MW: You got a farming planet, Fucking great**

 **LS: she doesn't mock your bs social justice, no need to mock her plant skills.**

 **PN: Agreed, but please don't temp an argument. I can only tolerate so much pitch courtship.**

 **MW: What?**

 **B2F: Please, just because we aren't as smart as OP when it comes to this stuff doesn't mean we don't know what's going on. You're both so pitch for each other you can't even see it.**

 **LS: please, that's ridiculous. if you wanna point fingers for obvious quadrant baiting point at PN.**

 **PN: Me? What the fuck for?**

 **MW: Bitch don't even, I've seen you talk to FS, And I could feel the pale lady-boner through the fucking screen,**

 **PN: That's crazy! He's just a friend.**

 **LS: who comes to your house at regular intervals to hang out and talk about stuff he doesn't talk about with anyone else, even OP.**

 **PN: He's just there to help me cut down the trees that get to big! Any conversations we might have had during that time were coincidental.**

 **B2F: Okay, not to gang up on you, but come on girl, I've seen your garden, it's fucking wild, but not even its trees re-grow to the point of needing a lumberjack weekly. You're totally diamonds for the mafia boy~**

 **[ProduceNinja has left the chat]**

 **LS: might have pushed a bit too much.**

 **MW: Ya fucking think,**


	13. Chapter 13

The following is an excerpt from the Sburb walkthrough written by penname TentacleTherapist entitled 'Derse, Prospit, and Dream Selves':

 _You'll have to accept my sincere apologies for having taken so long to get to this point in the game in my walkthrough._

 _Under most circumstances you'll have needed this information from the moment you start the game, as for all but a few players it will begin the first time you sleep within the game. I'd have reached it sooner, but it's taken me awhile to wrap my mind around it personally._

 _Simply put, the moment you enter the game, you essentially have two bodies. The first is your normal body, the one that's just doing as you do throughout the game. But whenever you fall asleep, you'll switch to your dream self, your secondary body, which will wake up._

 _When you fall asleep as you dream self, you'll awaken back as your regular self. It should be noted that you don't make the shift to dream self by passing into some ethereal dream realm._

 _The dream self bodies are located on the planets named Derse and Prospit, the former a dark purple kingdom with a grudge against the sleeping players, the latter a bright gold one with an affection for them._

 _Under all known circumstances, the number of Derse and Prospit dreamers has been equal. Both Derse and Prospit are physical locations that you could visit with your waking body, even meeting your dream self; or at least meeting their sleeping body._

 _In our session for example, a dream self was even added to the sprite of their player's waking body, though in doing so she learned something about the dream selves. When you wake within them, you are not in perfect control of them._

 _Your dream self will be essentially you, but with one, a few, or even all of your emotions drastically exaggerated, like a living parody of yourself. I'm told that this is not the case for all players._

 _Some have been in just as much control of their regular body as their dream self, knowing when they've crossed over and being able to remember things from their time in both forms, where most players are unable._

 _Such was the case for me. I was not so much my dream self as located somewhere vaguely inside of her, more piloting the body than living through it._

 _The previously mentioned player who made a sprite of her dream self recounted that her dream form was not only hyper emotional and easily brought to tears by the mere mention of slightly upsetting things, but also just logically unintelligent._

 _On a final note, it's been my experience that every session will have at least one player who had been waking as their dream self even before the game began._

 _Any who recall seeing the light or dark shelled carapacian people in their dreams are almost certainly the player who'd been waking as their dream self._

 _One might assume this player would be one with more natural control of their dream self, but in truth this is not the case; and they tend to have even less control than others._

 _Take caution while sleeping._

* * *

Aspico opened her eyes, looking down at her golden yellow sleeping gown. She had no memory of putting it on, but of course she'd always been wearing it.

She looked around the empty golden room, knowing that she didn't want to stay inside of it, pretty though it was. She looked out the window and saw the streets below. She was in a castle she realized. How had she never known she'd been inside of a castle?

She floated through the window and down to the street, seeing the people who inhabited the kingdom. She recognized them as carapacians, the chess like people from the carapacian kingdom. Unlike that kingdom though, only the pure white skinned/shelled ones were here.

Prospitians they were called if she remembered right. "I suppose that mut make this Prospit." She said with a smile, looking around. The citizens all stared at her curiously, but not hostile.

She heard them whisper when she passed them, but it seemed that to Aspico that she was merely being admired. She only managed to actually hear what they were saying once., catching the words, 'The Seer is awake.. First the Sylph and the Bard, and now the Ser?"

Seer.. why didn't sound familiar. She was the Seer.. she supposed, but of what? She shook her head, not wanting to worry herself with such questions when there was a golden kingdom to be explored.

Notably they'd mentioned a Bard and a Sylph, so perhaps friends were about. She floated through the streets, looking over the the other tall golden castle spires. Including the one she'd been sleeping in herself, there were six total.

She found Java in one of them, not asleep, but the window of Arvis' room, knees on the windowsill as she gazed dreamily into the rom. Aspico giggled at this, and continued floating along. Looking through another window, she found that Lurabo was still asleep, the yellow blood tossing and turning restlessly in her bed.

Shrugging at this, Aspico floated over more and found two of her friends awake, Risura and Valtina. They were walking together through the streets of Prospit, looking around together.

Aspico flew down to them to greet them. They may have been on opposite teams, but they were still friends she believed. Valtina smiled, hugging Aspico happily, "I told you this place was real!" She said excitedly.

Thinking back, Aspico did member that there had been a time when altina had been telling her about seeing the carapacians in her sleep, in a golden city with bright clouds above it. She didn't remember when this had happened.

Frankly she couldn't clearly remember anything that had happened before she'd woken up in her room, though for reasons she didn't understand, was untroubled by this. Risura was staring up into the sky, practically seeming to be in a trance as he looked into the clouds.

"They show the past," Valtina said, "And the future to. Go ahead and take a look!"

Curiously, Aspico looked up at the clouds above. For the first few moments she was simply staring at clouds, but shortly after images began appearing in the clouds; images that finally broke the sense of calm in the troll girl, and slowly brought her olive green blood to a boil. "What are you seeing?" Valtina asked curiously when she saw Aspico's hands clench into fists. "Patior." Aspico said to through clenched teeth.

She didn't know why the clouds had decided to show her the jerk of an indigo blue blood, but there he was in the clouds, being a jerk online, being a jerk to other trolls in the street, working out.. Getting sweaty so he could look sexy while he was being a jekr. Aspico hadn't noticed she was blushing, though even when she did notice it she assumed it was just from her anger; which wasn't technically inaccurate.

* * *

Jeff floated through the streets of Derse. He had to move quickly. If seen for too long, he was all but certain to be attacked. There'd been bars on the window in his room when he'd woken in the dark purple sleep wear, but he'd luckily woken with perfect timing, as Furlok had been floating passed his window, no doubt to visit Brendon in the next spire over.

She'd been chipping at her bars for quite while and broken through, and when he asked, she was willing to help him remove the bars over his. Furlok seemed to be in a more dreamlike state than Jeff, but he didn't question it, instead focusing himself on locating his other friends on Derse.

It'd not been difficult to figure that Furlok and Brendon were on either side of the spire he'd come from, but now the question was whether or not there were other people. He could see three other spires, which meant three other people.

He slowly made his way towards them, occasionally stopping to hide in the shadows whenever a few of the pitch black shelled carapacians passed. Most were either armed, armored, or both.

He heard one of them talking with the others, "Yeah, the Thief's been awake for ages, but I'm hearing word that the Heir's up and out as well. The Witch to. They aren't much of a problem right now, so we don't need to deal with them yet."

"What about the Prince?"

"Naw, he's still out, and let's pray he stays like that. If he wakes, we're gonna have one hell of a time keeping 'em down."

Thief, Heir, Witch, and Prince.. Jeff wondered about these apparent titles as he continued towards the spires. For some reason his mind kept going back to the Heir title. Perhaps they were all names for his friends? And that would make him the Heir.. but to what?

To his knowledge he had no rich family, no wealth to inherit, nor any goals that would require him to. He cleared his mind of this, focusing on the spires and floating up to one of them. Inside he found Dustine.

He was tossing and turning in his sleep, not looking very restful at all as he slept. Jeff wished he could help, but wasn't sure how, so moved on to the next spire. Inside, Mutosi was standing on her bed, seeming to be practicing a speech about the blood caste and its flawed nature, and how society had just allowed it to propagate.

Jeff wondered if she remembered that even if she'd been right about this, it had only been true on a planet that had been blasted to hell by meteors shortly after they'd all entered this game.

Not believing she'd want much to talk with him, Jeff floated to the last of the spires, finding it to be empty.

The bars had been pried out of place, the occupant having left. If Jeff's math was right, then this would have to be someone from the 'Villain team', and he had a suspicion that it was Patior. Where exactly the indigo blood had gone, he wasn't sure.


	14. Chapter 14

Brendon had spent as little time in the town he'd found as possible. It was populated entirely by the spirits, ghostly figures that all looked human, but with horrible scares and grim auras about them that made them unsettling to be around. He'd gone in, gone to the shops to spend the money he'd been gathering (he'd not even noticed that he'd been getting money along with his grist, referred to as Boondollars) and left once he had what he wanted.

He'd only purchased two things. The first was a set of iron armor which was immediately alchemized with the Boxcar Buffer to create the Reinforced Boxcar Buffer, and a healing potion which he couldn't alchemize with anything, as he'd spent all his current grist. Alchemy just seemed to burn through the stuff it seemed, and he'd have to gather more if he wanted to continue.

As he left the town, he caught sight of something not too far off. Across another expanse of fanged, fleshy terrain was a large temple that appeared to have been carved out of a massive white fang. Brendon, armored and armed, made his way towards it, fighting off the lowly shale imps that were trying to stop him along the way there.

He'd needed to chop the door to the temple down Jack Nicholson style to get inside, finding the first floor of it populated by jade imps, roughly fourteen. Half of them were airborne, either with wings or jet engines. The rest were grounded, though the ones on the ground seemed to have more different component parts. He could handle most of them, though the robotic parts were the fucking bane of his existence.

His Super Shotty made short work of the imps, reloading so fast and hitting so hard with such a wide spread that it wiped out the floor in a matter of minutes. He couldn't help but laugh, thinking that if this gun were any more broken it'd be a race horse. Not to mention how easily his outfit soaked up damage without actually getting damaged itself.

The next floor was admittedly more difficult. Two Rust Ogres, one with long hooked claws, an unsettling jester's grin, rodent-like teeth, and roots spreading across the floor. The second was a fully cybernetic ogre, complete with jet engine wings. These.. these would be significantly less easy to deal with. Brendon equipped his Spade Sparer, letting his thoughts flood with memories of his sparring sessions with Furlok.

Memories of her infuriating inferiority complex, wonderful sense of creativity, smut fucking voice, and sexy fucking ass causing the axe to practically turn red hot in his hands as he slashed at the air, sending a slash wave of black fire at the grinning ogre, setting its root vines on fire. It howled in pain as its vines shriveled up, removing its most dangerous aspect.

Brendon was knocked to the ground by a missile shot to his back from the cyborg ogre. He turned and fired twice from his gun, sending the ogre all the way back to the wall before turning back to the first ogre and running forward, counting a slash from its claws with his axe, and strength and heat from it cutting through the claws and leaving its face open to another double tap shot from the Super Shotty, killing the ogre.

He threw the Spade Sparker across the room into the other ogre, letting the memory of his first pitch make out with the teal blooded troll fuel its flames as it cut into the ogre's chest and began melting it. Brendon retrieved the weapon and collected the grist before heading up to the third and final room of the temple. It had only one monster, which he supposed made it the boss.

It looked about ten feet taller than the ogres, its arms bulky and muscled, ending in mole-like claws and lined with feathers. Its eyes were robotic in nature, almost certainly capable of firing lasers. Its mouth was canine, its tail long with a scorpion point, and its back covered by a massive turtle shell. It was a Brimstone Archeon, and it did not look happy to see Brendon. He gulped, and hoped the grist would be worth it.

* * *

Patior woke from a rather alarming dream. He'd been traveling through a dark, purple kingdom, attempting to avoid being seen by what he could have sworn were Dersites. This in and of itself wasn't what was so distressing to him though. What confused and annoyed him the most was that he could very clearly remember that in the dream he'd not just been wondering aimlessly, he'd been looking for Aspico, wanting to find her, needing to.

He pushed the memory of this dream to the back of his mind where it and all other thoughts of the olive blood belonged, focusing on his current situation. He'd fond a massive metal structure, a series of pillars and beams that weren't rushing despite the constant rain fall. Before sleeping he'd climbed to the center of it, where he'd found a locked metal chest. The structure provided semi-decent rain protection, furthered by his umbrella, hence sleep being possible at all where he was.

He turned his attention back to the chest, using his bayonet to break the lock and open it. Inside he found a series of tablets with writing on them. Curious, he positioned his umbrella so he could sit underneath it while he read from them. They seemed to describe the history of LoRaR, going back to before the never ending storm that now ravaged the land.

 _LoRaR was once a lush, green, wondrous land, plagued not by wind or rain. We were a prosperous people, finding mines of iron ore to build out towns and structures out of. It was a time of peace and happiness, before the Denizen arrives. He came, bringing with him storms to drowned our planet in water, corroding our structures along with our will to go forward. Many have tried to find the Denizen's lair, believing that defeating him will bring an end to these storms and free us from the water. With the rain stopped, the plants may grow, the mines may dry, and the structures no longer rust over._

 _But there has been no success. The luckiest of us simply return months later, unable to find the lair of the denizen. The unlucky are those who find it, and never return to their homes. Those that return though, bring with them a prophecy. 'The Mage of Mind shall one day come. They will bring with them logic and reason, and bring with them the end of our suffering, and the end of the denizen.'_

 _Many rally behind the name of the Mage of Mind, believing they will be our salvation. Others believe the Mage of Mind to be our enemy, feeling that the Denizen only brought the storm to prevent the Mage from finding them and killing them, and should the Mage be killed, the rain shall stop. And still there are those who do not believe at all, who fear the denizen will rule forever, his rain never ceasing._

Patior contemplated the tablet, but to him, the two most interesting question to be found were why the land had been called LoRaR, which was short for Land of Rust and Rain, before there had been any rust or rain on it, and why the consorts didn't simply harvest a less-rust prone metal, such as these structures, rather than waiting for some hero to save them. He concluded that the consorts were simply not the smartest of creatures.

* * *

Furlok slapped the ogre across the stomach with her red paint brush and backed up as it began melting through him. She'd had to spend the entirety of her grist making this weaponized paint set to go with her Brushwear, but it had been completely fucking worth it. She'd been chewing through the enemies ever since she made it, melting, burning, blasting, and shrinking them out of her way as she progressed through the frog infested section of her land.

She'd started with the simple goal of get as far as she could before getting board and turning around to raid the marketplace again, but an actual destination presented itself after the first hour or so of investigated the frog lands. In the distance was a massive looming tower, greenish in color from whatever it'd been made out of, with a giant stone frog head carved onto the front of it.

She could tell it was different from the normal enemy temples, of which she'd entered one on whim, been dog piled by imps who shed quickly dispatched, and then completely ignored the second. This tower, this building was something different. She didn't know why, but she could feel it, like a voice in the back of her head spurring her on towards it in spite of logic. She'd not even known she as moving towards it at first, but once she did, began progressing towards it faster.

Furlok assumed herself to be following her natural creative muse, the same influence that had driven her to spend so much time on her masterpiece painting (which she'd not yet even finished, though did have in her sketch modus for completion at a later date), an instinct that had never once steered her in the wrong direction before; even if the direction had often been hazardous.

* * *

Java had woke blushing and in need of a shower. She'd gotten a room at an inn run by the consorts of her land. She'd laid down in bed to rest, and found herself in an incredibly detailed dream. She could remember a golden city populated by Prospitans, she could remember being able to float, and she could remember following her urge to find Arvis. He'd been asleep in a nearby tower, and she'd..

Java blushed deeper at the recollection of it. It was just a dream. A very, very detailed dream that had left her clothing in a less than suitable state. She felt awhile dealing with this, and once she was presentable again, headed out. Unlike most of the players in the session so far, Java actually had a goal in mind, and had since the previous night.

She'd spoken with her consorts shortly after reaching town. She'd learned about their culture, how flight had been a symbol of status in their world, how every family owned at least one plane that was always kept in the air by someone, only brought down to refuel and switch pilots. And she'd learned how they'd not been able to land in far too long.

The denizen had come, finding himself somewhere on LoFaB, using his powers to create the giant fans that now scattered across the land's surface, their ever blowing wind preventing the planes from ever landing and keeping their pilots trapped in the air, fated to slowly starve and dehydrate while their friends and families below tried helplessly to rescue them.

Java wasn't sure how she was meant to do it, but she knew her mission: find the denizen, kill his ass, save the pilots.

* * *

 **Also, there's a lemon for the last chapter in Sinful's Drabbles. I suppose you could technically say it was for this chapter, considering we only see Java's reaction upon her waking up.**


	15. Chapter 15

Aspico had been listening to the Exiled guiding her. She'd refused to reveal her name to Aspico, which the olive blooded troll found odd considering everything else she was willing to tell while Aspico fought underling monsters. 'There's one of us here for every one of you,' She explained, Aspico hearing what she said in her head, 'But only you can actually hear us. The others experience our advice by thinking that it was their idea, even if they had no intention of doing what we made them do and didn't like it afterwards. When we learned this, we agreed to try only making small decisions for your friends so as not to get you into too much trouble.'

'Interesting,' Aspico said as she drove her fencing point into the spine of a basilisk, killing it instantly and dissolving it into grist she busily gathered. 'And what do you suppose the factor is that allows me to hear you clearly while the others are unable?' 'I think it's because you're the Seer.' 'Seer..' Aspico thought, remembering the word but unsure where she'd heard it, 'Care to elaborate?'

'Seer of Heart I believe,' The Exiled said, 'your class and aspect. All the players in the game have one. According to the walkthrough I've found, there are twelve classes and twelve aspects.' 'Hmm, one for everyone playing with no repeats,' Aspico mused, 'If it's not too much trouble, would you mind explaining these classes and aspects? The information could be useful.'

'Very well. The classes are sorted into six groups: create, destroy, understand, redistribute, manipulate, and exploit. Every category has a passive and active half. Seer for example is the passive half of the understanding class, one who passively learns about their aspect and makes predictions pertaining to their aspect. It's active half would be the Mage, who actively gathers information on their aspect in order to take action.'

'The passive creator is the Sylph, who uses their creation to heal. The active creator is the Maid, who outright creates their aspect. The destroyers are the Bard, who passively destroys others with their aspect, and the Prince, who actively destroy their aspect. The redistributers are the active Thief who steals their aspect from others, and the passive Rogue, who moves their aspect from one to another.

'The manipulators are the active Witch, who alters and breaks the rules of their aspect, and the passive Heir, who makes small alterations of their aspect, and can even become their aspect. The exploiters are the Knight, who actively wields their aspect as a weapon or tool, and the Page, who passively arms others with their aspect. Apparently the Page can actually generate their aspect like a living weapon if allowed to reach their full potential.'

'As for the aspects, as I said there are also twelve. The Breath aspect pertains to freedom, wind, and untethering. The Blood aspect is about connections, relationships, and literal blood. The Life aspect is about living, energy, and desires. The Doom aspect is about destruction, sacrifice, and rules. The Mind aspect is about thought, logic, and memories. The Heart aspect is about the soul and emotion.

'The Rage aspect is about anger, decisiveness, and negative emotions. The Hope aspect is about willpower, faith, and raw power. The Time ism exactly what it sounds like. The Space aspect is about size, shape, location, and velocity. The Light aspect is about illumination, in terms on literal light, probability, and knowledge. And the Void aspect is about misdirection, secrecy, and the Horror Terrors, meaning beings from beyond the veil.'

Aspico had cleared the area outside the town of monsters as she listened, and now with this list in mind returned to the town. 'So as Seer of Heart, I'm one to predict actions of the soul and emotions? Seems appropriate.' She said, taking out her graphs. This time it wasn't for shipping, but for information gathering. She wanted to know who was what, and planned to figure it out.

* * *

Dustine was doing pull ups with the sturdy outstretched branch of a tree a little ways away from the moat guarded town. He was getting into that town no matter how much training he had to do before he got to it. Frankly he was less interested in getting into the town and more interested in defeating the toad guard outside of it. He grunted with the effort as he pulled himself up hard enough to send himself up the next branch higher up on the tree, continuing as he was on the lower branch. His muscles were starting to complain from the effort, but he didn't care; frankly he found it slightly enjoyable.

He let himself drop out of the tree when he heard noises from the forest, and took out the Mirthful Mace once more for another fight.

* * *

Lurabo had made it into a town. Like everything else in her world it was supported by a ladder, or in this case a series of massive pillar like ladders, a bright spotlight keeping the entire town well lit. The consorts living within appeared to all be humanoid meerkat people, loving the light, which frankly explained the reason for their town being built in the middle of a blazing spotlight.

Having gained quite a bit of grist and money fighting her way into the town, Lurabo headed to the town's shop, finding them selling various weapons and magical items. She thought for a moment as she looked over the items, an idea coming to her. She purchased an amulet and talisman, as well as the cheapest sword she could find. She wasn't sure what exactly the talisman did, but she did know that combining it with her tarot deck would unlock the next minor arcana: Pentacles. And alchemizing it with the sword unlocked the sword suits as well, creating the Full Arcana Tarot Deck.

She smiled at the sight of her complete deck of cards, and before heading out to take it for a test drive, used the rest of her grist to alchemize the amulet with her Mystic Staff, creating the Arcane, a magical walking stick for only the most powerful of magic users. Even holding it seemed to focus Lurabo's mind more, making her want to try using her telekinesis more when she next found monsters.

But before she headed out, she figured she'd talk with the consorts and see what they were about.

* * *

Risura had more grist than he actually knew what to do with. He'd already alchemized everything he wanted, and so figured he'd just continue forward through his land in search of something new. He'd gotten into the habit of avoiding the consorts. They weren't hostile or anything, but they had an annoying habit of mistaking him for a female, which always brought a jade blooded blush to his cheeks.

A lot of Mutosi's insults were baseless, but she was dead on whenever she pointed out how feminine he looked. Genetics were to blame. Ninety-eight percent of jade blooded trolls were female, and of the two percent that were male, the vast majority had extremely feminine appearances. Risura was no exception. Muscled as he got, his body always looked girly. Not just vaguely like a girl either, he'd been hit on more than once by perfectly straight human men before the game because no matter what he did, he was just naturally a womanly trap.

He hated the idea of Mutosi being right about anything, and figured that, if nothing else, he could at least take out his frustrations on a few more underlings. He'd get back to looking for information at some point.


	16. Chapter 16

Jeff found that his land was rather fascinating. LoGaK in its entirely was a massive machine. Not to say the entire planet had been dug out and fixed into a massive mechanical structure, which would in itself be interesting. The entire planet was mechanical, a massive clockwork orb with its entire continents moving and rotating and ticking over like a clock; the gentle hum of gears at work audible beneath the metallic ground.

But that didn't explain the ever so slight sense of unease Jeff felt as he spoke with the humanoid ladybug consorts who inhabited the town he'd found his way to. He couldn't explain it, there was just something off about something he was seeing or hearing in the world around him. It wasn't the consorts, though the consorts did seem to be feeling the same thing.

Eventually it clicked. It being the chiming of the massive clock bell at the peak of the planet's largest mountain. It rang out loud, the coils and metal pillars spreading the sound of it throughout the planet so it could be heard by every living creature on LoGaK. It would have been utterly majestic were it in tune, and more to the point, on time. The clock chime was off by almost five minutes.

That's what had been throwing Jeff off he realized, the ticking, the gears, the whirling of the steam, eve the chime; it was all off. How precisely Jeff had been able to identify this without ever having known what the clocks schedule was, or knowing what time it was currently, was a matter of debate, but the fact remained that he knew it. "Is that a problem?" Jeff asked the market keeper, getting an uneasy feeling from it.

"Only way to fix the clock is to find the key." The lady bug said, "There's four sections where the minor gears are wound, and a central gear to be found. Long ago there were many who would be tasked with maintaining the gears, but that darned Denizen threw everything out of whack. The keys have been lost somewhere out where those monsters are guarding the,. The planet's been running fast or running slow ever since."

"That's terrible." Jeff said with a frown, "Has no one ever tried to find the keys and fix it?" "Tons," The market keeper said, "But none of us ever come back. You'd have to have a clock built right into your mind to keep up with the planet's cracked schedule and not get ground up in the gears or burned in the steam. It's utterly impossible! Denizen said so themself."

Jeff though about this, tongue clicking as looking out of the town towards the metallic landscape in the distance. He could probably find a few keys.

* * *

Valtina had perhaps spent more time in the consort village than she meant to. She hadn't exactly wanted to spend so much time in the village without progressing through the game, but she didn't like the idea of leaving so many of them at the mercy of the utter rot spreading across LoGaR.

Many of them were sick from disease or wounded from monsters, and the energy flowing from the Pedal Palm gloves Valtina wore seemed remarkable at healing them. She spent quite awhile just making sure everyone was okay before she actually thought to ask the cause of all the destruction.

She learned from the villagers that it was brought on by the presence of some beast called the Denizen. On top of spreading the vile contagion ruining their land, the Denizen also destroyed the knowledge of how to tend the land, so that even if new fertile land somehow came about, it would still be just as useless to them.

Valtina gave a grin when she heard this, "I think I might be able to help you with that." She said, taking out her gardening tools.

* * *

Arvis didn't give the ogre guarding the gate to the town time to realize he was there. His leapt at the creature and liberated its head from the rest of it with his hook sword in a quick slash. Arvis' nerves had been holding him back he realized as he'd alchemized as many hook related weapons as he possibly could, arming himself with hooked gloves, two hooked swords, and as soon as he'd had the rope for it, a grappling hook.

He was starting to think that making such a powerful sprite, and because of this such powerful enemies, wasn't such a bad idea after all. He'd been beaten and cut up a dozen or more times, sure, but having such a massive wall in front of him at the start had forced him to get better faster. The imaginary friends he told his real friends about would have been proud to see how good he was getting with his weapons.

Oh, and also his real friends to. Especially Java he hoped.

* * *

Mutosi kicked the door of the cathedral open. She knew that, stupid as her consorts shitty religion was, they could still probably raise one hell of a riot if she let them. Even for the stupid there was at least strength in numbers. Thankfully, she'd been practicing her powers for just such an occasion. Her ability to control animals wouldn't have been enough for an entire town of dumbass camel people.

But she'd been practicing on the underlings that roamed the desert. Since they're bodies were more often than not composed of several different animal parts, but their core's were always that of non-animal monsters, it made them harder to control, but still possible. It let her train the power like a muscle while she trained her physical skills with her weaponized broom.

And now, as the camels stood and took up their arms to drive Mutosi out of their cathedral, she was ready. She rose her hands, spreading her influence throughout the massive building. The camel consorts felt their minds suppressed by the brown blood's influence, her will taking precedent over their own as she requested they bring her any and all spell books their cathedral contained.

Now that she had control over the cathedral, she could do away with their focus on whatever pointless things they'd been focusing on before. They'd thank her later. And in the meantime she could learn a few new tricks.


	17. Chapter 17

Brendon panted heavily, wiping the sweat from his face as he gathered the grist from the boss monster of the tower he'd just conquered. It had taken a lot longer than he'd thought it would, and it had been too close for comfort several times. He'd actually run out of shotty ammo towards the end, and with no time to get more during the battle, he'd had to make it through the rest of the battle with just his Spade Sparker, letting thoughts of his hated Kismesis flood his thoughts in all her sexy, annoying, wonderful wretchedness in order to amp up the fires the axe started.

As a result, towards the end of the battle, Brendon was sporting a massive throbbing reminder of how long he'd gone now since he and Furlok's last meet up. He came so close to breaking down and just messaging her, but doing so first would be a victory he couldn't give the teal blooded bitch. She'd hold it over him until he managed to catch her at a weak moment in return, and so it would go.

He just managed to avoid giving in, though a bit of his dignity was chipped off when he saw the new message alert and excitedly answered, only to find that it was Valtina and not Furlok.

 **PN: Hey, just checking in. Things are crazy out here, and I can only assume you're getting it just as bad, lol. I know we're technically on different teams, but I doubt it's that big a deal if we still wanna talk now and then you know? We talked all the time before the game so.. well, just let me know if and when you're free to.**

 **FS: Sorry, just beat a boss and got a metric ton of grist. Gonna head up to the glowing blue circle thing on the top floor.**

 **PN: Glowing blue circle?**

 **FS: Yeah, I saw it from a distance before I started fighting through the tower. I think it might be some sort of portal.**

 **PN: A Gate.**

 **FS: Hm?**

 **PN: Patior's been checking with the sprites and other sources and learning the names of everything. It's called a Gate, they take you from one player's land to someone else's, probably whoever was right after you entering the game.**

 **FS: So.. this thing will take me to Furlok's land?**

 **PN: I think so yeah.**

 **F** **S:... I gotta go. We'll talk later.**

Brendon sighed off, missing entirely Valtina's subtle pale flirting, unintentional though it may have been. He quickly finished gathering the rest of the grist and ran up the final set of stairs and took a flying leap into the Gate, passing through in a flash and finding himself falling towards rocky ground, a series of frogs leaping out of the way to avoid being crushed by him.

Brendon threw down an item he'd alchemized using the Felt figure of 2. His power had been one of slowing time down. Only for himself mind you, but it thankfully made him immune to combat damage, as the attacks slowed and stretched beyond time any time they came at him. The item Brendon had created, a little amulet with powers of different items, allowed him to slow fall to the ground before taking off across the land.

His Farwalker Boots insured that he didn't need to know which direction to go as he ran, frogs jumping out of the way left and right, the future and past sensing properties from the Felt figures of 3 and 5 letting the boots carrying their wearer towards whatever goal they desired based on information from the past and future, meaning that if his goal was actually one bad for him, they wouldn't let him find it.

Thankfully though, a brutal beating from a Kismesis didn't count as bad enough a future for the Farwalkers to lead him away from her. He grinned over the rocks as he saw Furlok. The rodent horned troll girl was currently attempting to break down the door to a temple with a massive stone frog on the front of it. He jumped over the rocks and ran towards her.

She'd just have to wait to deal with the temple; which she was perfectly happy to do if the alternative was a few minutes fighting or fucking her pitch lover.

* * *

Patior drove his bayonet point into the body of the metallic imp in front of him, watching it vanish to grist around the blade. He jerked his body quickly, slashing at the winged, clown faced, hook clawed basilisk that had been slithering towards him. He fired immediately after his bayonet blade came to a stop the bullet firing through the open wound and killing the basilisk as well.

The blue blood gathered the grist as well, glad that all the enemies were weak enough to take out up close, as the rain was too thick for his sniper rifle to take out a distance. With the enemies now dealt with, he was finally able to pass through the gate he'd found. It had been at the top of one of the un-rusted metal structures, one with winged underling enemies crawling over it.

He passed through without a second thought. He'd deal with whatever was to be done on his planet at a later date, right now he wanted to be the fuck out of the rain. Once he'd passed through, he breathed a sigh of relief as he found himself standing in a dry, lush grassy field with warm sunlight shining down on him from above. Also a wave of cold wind from the massive table fans that dotted the land like obelisks, keeping the trapped consort pilots in the air, but Patior supposed that wasn't his problem.

Patior supposed this was Java's planet, going by the order in which they'd entered the game. He headed towards the nearest town, trying to get into contact with his teammate through the messenger, only to find that she wasn't on at the moment, which was odd. Typically Java was the one mot likely of their team to be logged on while she did other things.

Patior did eventually figure out why she'd logged off. Well, no, he never did actually figure it out, as even once seeing with his own eyes the reason his mind didn't quite put together why she felt privacy was necessary, hence him simply throwing the door in the consort inn he'd been told she was in, and seeming surprised by the surprised scream she let out.

"W*s doing +ha+ re*lly necess*ry?" Patior questioned several minutes later when the two of them were on their way out of the inn, "*nd wi+h your own spri+e? Just unsigh+ly."

Java, suppressing her blush intensely and taking a breath to avoid things turning violent, replied, "One: I can only go so long in situations like this without some kind of stress relief. Two: If you tell anyone about this, and I mean anyone, I'll take my brass knuckles, knock those perfect blue blooded teeth out of your mouth, and shove them all up your ass. Is that understood?"

"* sniper round would deal wi+h you long before you could." Patior said, Java just facepalming, "Just shut up and help me with this."

"With what?" He questioned. "I need to move these fans to get the pilots down." Java said, "Gonna point them all down and let the pilots land safely."

"You'll kill +hem *ll +h*+ w*y." Patior said. Seeing Java's look of confusion, he elaborated, "*+ +his poin+ none of +he pl*nes *re using fuel, just +he breeze. *lter +he wind +oo much *nd +hey'll *ll cr*ash. You h*ve to direc+ +hem correc+ly."

"Oh.. how do I do that?" Java questioned. "You don't," Patior said, "I do. You just be re*dy to c*+ch *ny +h*+ f*ll out."

* * *

 **Yes, there will be another lemon in the drabbles this week.**


	18. Chapter 18

Aspico approached the temple full of underlings. She held her Pitch Piercer aloft, rushing forward towards the imps populating the first floor of it and beginning to cut through them easily; not even paying attention to the combat. Her mind was on the classpects of herself and fellow players.

According to the Exiled, she was the Seer of Heart, which meant no one else could be a Seer or a player of Heart. She began to think about the possibilities of the players based on what she knew about them, and what she knew about their lands.

She had to assume that Arvis was a Blood player, as he went on at length before the game about all his friends and connections. She assumed Heir of Blood because of how naturally he had made friends. There wasn't a doubt in her mind that Jeff was the Time player, though what his class was she couldn't tell.

She knew for a fact that Furlok was their Space player do to the mention of frogs in her land, as she'd learned all Space players were known to have a land populated by frogs. By a similar token, she assumed that Java was the Breath player do to her land's visual connection to the wind.

Hope player could have been Dustine, Risura, or Mutosi just as easily, though who was which was unknown to her at the time. Sylph of Life was all but certainly Valtina. As Princes and Bards both appeared to be the opposite of their aspect, she could only assume that Brendon was one or the other of Doom.

She hoped for Prince, as one who used Doom itself to destroy others was an unsettling thought. Considering Light's connection to probability, Aspico guessed that Lurabo was Light. Witch perhaps? No, Lurabo never showed any desire to alter or break the rules of probability or wisdom.

Wait, break the rules.. Aspico realized that breaking the rules of current faith, altering it for their own gain perfectly described not only Mutosi's worldview, but even the way she'd been using her brown blooded powers, making her Witch of Hope.

That was a distressing thought, but she pushed it to the back of her mind. What aspects were left? Void, Rage, and Mind… her knee jerk response was to think that Patior was Mage of Rage, suffering and profiting from his own aggression, but she knew this wasn't the case. There was no passion in his actions, it was all coldly logical.

And through this admission, Aspico realized that Mage of Mind had to be Patior. Which left Void and Rage… she sighed, figuring she'd need to learn more about her fellow friends and players to fully determine who was what.

In the meantime, she'd already completely cleared the first two floors of the temple she was in, and now needed only to head up to the third to fight the boss; which was bound to require a smidgen more focus from her to fight.

* * *

Dustine stretched his arms as he approached the bridge, swirling his mace in his hands. He'd been training in the area around the town, even bringing town a hostile tower full of monsters, and he felt like he was ready to fight the toad guard who'd sent him into the moat when he'd first tried.

The toad guard didn't look worried, bracing himself as Dustine charged, striking with his mace. The toad guarded with his arm, but noticeably winced from the force. Grinning at this, Dustine pushed forward and struck with his other hand, punching the toad in the gut.

The toad countered by letting his throat inflate with his croak, hitting Dustine like an airbag and knocking him back. Dustine glared as he got back to his feet, gripping the Mirthful Mace tighter as he prepared to attack again.

When he charged forward and saw the toad's eyes widen, he assumed it was just because he was shocked by Dustine's strength and resolve. Dustine was unaware of the purple haze that was now coming off of his body and weapon, heating the air around him as he began to wail on the toad guard with his mace.

The guard continued trying to fight, striking Dustine hard with his fist, but in his current state, Dustine didn't even feel the strike that had before dropped him like a bag of rocks. He brought his face, which had become completely purple by this point, down on the toad guard, causing him to stagger back.

Seeing this, Dustine grabbed the toad, grunting with the effort of pulling the guard around, lifting him up, and throwing him over the edge of the bridge and into the moat just as he'd done to Dustine before.

Dustine panted, feeling his muscles starting to scream at him as the purple energy faded as his mind cooled off. His arms were sore, as was his body from the punch he'd taken, but he was still standing.

A grin spread across his face, and as he walked into the town, he opened the messenger to contact Risura, wanting to tell him about the victory. He hesitated though, as he realized how long it had been since he'd messaged the jade blood.

Normally he never went a full day without talking to him, but now he'd gone almost five straight without saying anything, and he doubted that his responding with news he'd beaten down a guard would at all play into the laid back personality that Risura, and indeed everyone, knew him for.

He sighed, a small blush forming on his face as he realized how much he disliked the idea of Risura being disappointed in him. He wasn't gonna try to lie to himself about how he felt, especially after all his talks with Aspico about it. But that didn't make it any easier for him to deal with.

He shook his head, deciding he'd deal with it later, when he'd figured out something appropriately cool and laid back to say to Risura. For the moment, he'd enjoy what his victory over the toad had brought and look around the town.

* * *

Lurabo drew The Empress, its connection to action and accomplishment letting her focus her telekinesis, forcing the three rust ogres approaching her to the ground, holding them there as she struck the ground with her Arcane, sending a wave of magic through the ground to kill all three of them.

The yellow blood gathered the grist they left behind. She smiled as she realized she finally had enough for the last item she wanted to alchemize. She took the poker set, and alchemized it with the tarot cards with the 9 of wands, the 9 of cups, the queen of swords, and the 3 of pentacles.

The result was the Slicer Suites, a deck of sharpened poker cards infused with connections to victory from the 9 of wands, well being from 9 of cups, skill and bravery from the queen of swords, and effort and ability from the 3 of pentacles.

Just in time to, as an entire swarm of iron imps, all with jet wings and robotic laser eyes, were on their way towards her. She wasn't massively surprised, as she'd left the safety of the town and followed the ladders to a combat oriented platform.

Lurabo drew a hand of seven poker cards and threw all of them at the imps. The cards cut though the wings of the imps, causing them all to crash into each other and the ground. Only a few survived. They all fired their lasers at Lurabo, and she quickly drew from her Tarot again.

Luckily she drew the knight of swords, infusing her with the strength to endure the attack and return fire with her Arcane, blasting the imps away. She smiled, collecting the grist once again and looking around.

After a few minutes of peace, the spotlight on the platform brightened, and the boss of the platform landed. According to the depressingly long health bar, the monster was called a Tar Archeon.

It was more massive than an ogre, with a long, pointed horn sprouting from its head. It had long harpy wings and metallic arms, curved hook claws and roots digging into the ground. It roared, a rocket firing from its metallic arm.

Lurabo raised her Arcane, focusing her telekinesis to catch the missile and fire it back at the Archeon. She closed her eyes to focus as she reached to her deck again, hoping for another lucky draw.

She didn't notice the light forming around her body as she focused, a power coming from her, not any of her items. It grew even brighter as her fingers touched the deck, and she drew, holding the card up.

Ten of wands, the card connected to pain and ruin. The Archeon roared in pain, its roots curling back up into its body as it curled up, arms rusting over. Lurabo smiled, throwing more of her Slicer Suite poker cards and cutting the Archeon into ribbons, finishing it off with a blast attack combining her telekinesis with the Arcane's magic.

With the boss defeated, Lurabo looked at the different possible ladders she could take from here. She couldn't help but notice that one of them seemed to lead up higher than any of the others she'd seen, with a much brighter spotlight.

She supposed whatever was up in this direction would at least have to be interesting.

* * *

Risura's elbow crashed into the face of the cyborg basilisk, killing it and making a mental note to do something to Patior when he eventually reached him in person. He was more than a little certain it was Patior's putting his robotic lusus into the sprite that made so many of the enemies so powerful.

Currently the jade blood was… he wasn't actually sure. He'd not been in town in quite awhile. He'd been wandering through a pitch black field for hours now, just waiting for the enemies he could feel creeping up on him to attack.

Finally they had, and he was being attacked from every direction. Thankfully the faint white light his body naturally let off as a jade blood worked to his advantage, and not just through letting him see when the enemies were attacking him.

To keep from getting overwhelmed, Risura turned his glowing off, putting the enemies in the dark and letting him attack them from the shadows while they attacked where he'd been when he was glowing.

The only issue was keeping track of where the enemies actually where once he turned out the lights. It was difficult, but he managed to keep track of where everything was throughout the combat.

At least until his vision started becoming obscured by his messenger.

 **MW: Hey asshole, Making any progress in your land?, Mine's like basically beaten already, It was easy because it was full of perma-religious psychos like you,**

 **LS: It's jUst UpsEttIng hOw hYpOcrItIcAl yOU ArE.**

 **MW: What the fuck are you talking about?, I'm trying to take down hypocracy,**

 **LS: yEAh, by mAkIng fun Of my bElIEfs, EvEn thOugh yOUrs ArEn't Any mOrE wEll fOUndEd )XXPP**

 **MW: You glowing, femboy, piece of garbage!, If I weren't pretty sure that this is just terrible pitch flirting, I'd look for my gate and beat the hell out of you!,**

 **LS: lOl, sUrE, *my* pItch flIrtIng Is tErrIblE )XXDD**

 **MW: The thought, The very thought, Of being anywhere at all near any one of your quadrants even spade, Is just about enough to make me lose my lunch,**

 **LS: If thAt's trUE, thEn dO mE A fAvOr And shUt thE fUck Up!**

 **[LuckyStar has signed off].**

Risura hadn't actually logged off on purpose. He'd just been punched directly in the face by an ogre and sent flying so hard it had broken the computer. He groaned in annoyance as he got back to his feet quickly and charged towards the monsters.

He couldn't actually see them, but hopefully they couldn't see him. And because he couldn't see them, he didn't realize that he avoided another ogre attack, passing directly through the ogre's attack like he wasn't even there. He did hear the attack hit the ground behind him and grabbed the ogre's arm, pulling the monster off his feet and swinging him at the other monsters, finishing them all off in one strike.

He panted, listening for any more monsters and finding none. He sighed, and continued through the land, re-alchemizing this hands free computer as he did.


	19. Chapter 19

Jeff jumped back to avoid the brass lich's attack. Jumped back in relative terms at least. He'd recently learned that his time keeping ability was more handy that he thought it would be. In this world, so long as he kept track of time, he could affect it, alter it slightly.

He'd done it a few times on accident, slowing time down and attacking an ogre six times in the amount of time it would have normally taken him to attack once. After a little practice, he found that he could do this at will if he tried.

He'd found that speeding time up came just as easily as slowing it down. Traveling through time however, that was a bit more difficult. It took a lot of focus, and he could only go a few minutes at best.

His jumping back was a jump through time, and he appeared behind the lich. The dark, stone room was quiet. 'Must be before I got here.' He thought to himself. He raised his bat, taking a swing with his Slugger and knocking the lich on the side of the head.

He jumped back forward, appearing a second or two after he'd jumped back and slamming the handle of the bat into the lich's stomach. As it doubled over, be brought the bat down on the back of its head.

The lich died and became a pile of grist. He gathered the grist and walked to the end of the room, opening the treasure chest and pulling out the large iron key, the first of the four required to re-calibrate the clockwork planet's ticking.

"But where to find the next one.." He wondered aloud. "Try those metal mountains to the east." He replied to himself. He from the future presumably, as he had no memory of coming back and saying this in the past.

Nor did he recognize the red outfit he was/would be wearing. It was pure red, with a gear symbol on the chest, and a long hood that nearly touched the floor. It didn't look bad Jeff felt, just odd.

"Thanks," Jeff said with a nod, "So.. when do I get the fancy outfit?" He asked. Future Jeff shook his head, "Naw, that one's too big a spoiler. Minor stuff is fine, but trust me, that's a really big one." He insisted.

"My clothes are an important event?" Present Jeff asked, more than a little surprised. "Kinda," Future Jeff said, "It's a bit more like everyone's are. They don't get them until they ascend.. Which I probably shouldn't have said but oh well." Future Jeff shrugged, "Oh well. Just keep going. Also keep track of your sprite. Gonna need him later, trust me."

Without another word on the subject, future Jeff vanished in a flash of red light. Present Jeff couldn't help but feel that the light was extremely familiar. Had he seen it before? He sighed, rubbing his head. He'd had these powers for all of two hours and already he was having to deal with time loops.

He shoved that aside for the moment, and turned his attention to the mechanical mountains east of the tower he was currently in. He doubted he would out and out lie to himself, so he guessed that would be his next target.

* * *

Valtina stabbed her sais into the throat of the charging ogre, jumping off of it as it dissolved into grist and landing on the back of the mechanical basilisk. She stabbed her sais several times into its back before realized that they weren't effective enough.

A realization that came too late to save her from being thrown off of the cybernetic serpent. She rolled over the ground, feeling her legs gets scraped by the landing. She switched from her sais to the Sawvel, raising it up as the chain blade began moving.

The basilisk hissed, opening its mouth and spitting acid at Valtina. She dodged to the left of the acid spit, throwing the Sawvel at the basilisk and taking out her Drill Cutter and Spade Blade. The basilisk was focused on avoiding the Sawvel, and didn't realize it was a trap until the Drill Cutter was digging into its metal scales, the Spade Blade wrenching chunks of meat and wiring out of its back.

The basilisk hissed in pain, attempting to coil around Valtina and kill her quickly, only for her to use the drill to tunnel through the coils, picking up the Sawvel and cutting the head from the basilisk's body, killing it.

Panting, she put her weapons away and returned to the town. She'd only left the town a few times since arriving at it, all of which were to either gather grist or fend off monsters trying to attack the town.

Using her book of agriculture, and her natural memory for things related to gardening, she'd been felting the consorts learn to tend the little land they had; which seemed to increase every day.

She had an idea though, and finally had enough grist to pull it off. She purchased a book of magic from the shop and alchemized it with the nature book, creating the Book of Natural Magic. This, she was sure, would help restore the land even faster.

On her way to test it out, a few consort children came up to her. They had a few cuts and bruises on their hands from helping out with the gardening. They held their hands out to be healed, which Valtina was more or less the go to fix for, and Valtina held her own hands out to heal them.

The green and blue energy left her hands and surrounded them, healing their hands and arms. Confusingly though, the consorts stared up at her in shock when she was done healing them. After a few moments, she realized what had surprised them.

She wasn't wearing her Pedal Palms. Her hands were bare currently, and she'd still been able to heal them. It hadn't the magical gloves doing the healing this entire time: it had been Valtina herself.

"Do you think… could it be… is she…" The consort children murmured, "Could she be the Sylph of Life?" They wondered aloud. "The what?" Valtina asked them. They nodded, "The Sylph of Life, the legendary hero. There's a prophecy about her and everything."

Curious, and supposing she wouldn't be able to spend the entire game tending to this one town, she asked them, "Would you tell me about this prophecy?"

* * *

Arvis didn't stay in the town he'd found for too long. The shelled insect consorts were generally unpleasant, to him and to each other. They didn't seem to care at all about anyone around them, and had all but chased him out of town to get rid of him.

Fine, he'd thought, if they didn't want him, he didn't want them either. He already had everything he needed, and had even managed to find a second thing to put into his sprite: a blood stone statue of a warrior.

After absorbing it, the sprite became fully solid, still having his long hooked claws, but now having armor and a broadsword in one hand as well. Arvis smiled at this, "Awesome." He said, clinking his claw sword against Strikerknightsprite's sword.

"Thanks for the upgrade." He said with a nod, looking over at the small horde that had started to form around them, as they'd been out in the open without moving for a few seconds too many, "Shall we test it out?" He asked.

Arvis nodded, lifting his hook sword, "Let's, but leave me some." He said, charging to one side of the horde as Strikerknight charged the other, bringing his sword down hard and sending a shockwave through the ground.

The shockwave stunlocked the enemies long enough for him to charge through them, cutting through them viciously with his claws. Arvis felt that he'd made a good choice in combination. He had Striker's speed and brutality, and the Blood Knight's power and durability. He was officially a tank.

Arvis himself meanwhile wasn't sure what category he fit into. His hook dug into the shoulder of the imp in front of him, pulling and swinging it around to avoid getting stabbed by its two chimerical tails.

He drew his grappling hook gun, firing at one of the airborne fighter jet-like ogres. He pulled it down, bringing the ogre into a flaming crash on the ground that took out a large portion of the enemies below.

The two of them continued to carve a bloody murder canyon through the swarming enemies. Both took several hard hits, but neither stopped until the two of them were the last living things in the area.

As a sprite, Striker Knight self healed, and could heal Arvis' wounds as well. "Won't be able to fight in every battle," He reminded Arvis, his tone of voice making it clear how upset he was personally by this fact, "But I can heal you after any fight you survive. So long as I'm around that is."

Arvis nodded, "Fair enough. Any idea what we should do now?" He asked. The sprite thought about it, trying to parce what the game's systems would allow him to reveal to his player at this time.

After some thinking, he replied, "Now that you've proven you can survive in this world, it may be time that you learn about it. Every hero in this game has a mission in their world, but you'll have to find it first."

Arvis nodded, lifting his hook blade and stretching out, "Alright, let's look around."

* * *

Mutosi flung her broom through the air, bringing it down hard on the target dummy she had set up, which may or may not have been modeled after an idiotic jade blooded femboy who deserved a broom in much less pleasant places.

The dummy cracked under the force of the impact. She was getting even better with it. She wasn't sure how often she'd need it, only three enemies had gone by that she'd been completely unable to use her powers on.

She supposed she would need to be as strong as possible. Eventually she would make it to Risura's land, and she was certain that their verbal fights would take a much more physical form when they met face to face.

She bit her lip at the thought of wiping the smug look off of the jade blood's stupid face, not thinking as she stood with her broom in front of her, stepping closer to the length of it was between her legs.

Her mind flooded with thoughts of their battle, Risura fighting with bare fists, muscles rippling but never making him lose his girly looks. She would win of course, but fuck would it be an impressive battle.

She paused, blushing brown deeply when she realized she'd lost focus and indeed control of her hips, which had started to grind gently against the wooden length of the broom. She stepped back, raising her broom and bringing it back down on the target.

The room shook slightly, nearly throwing her off balance. Mutosi grumbled, walking across the room and sticking her head out of the curtain, "Hey, easy would ya!," She shouted at the camel consorts carrying her room across the desert.

She saw no reason to walk across it when she could easily have these dumbass camel worshippers lend their time to her instead of whatever nonsense they were praying to. She'd be at the next cathedral town soon, and she would be ready to seige it if she had to.


	20. Chapter 20

Brendon was enjoying his time on Derse; or at least his Dreamself was. After having some fun with Dream Furlok, he'd decided not to stay in the room with all the bars. He took an axe from the wall and decided logically to kill… everyone.

Everyone trying to stop him from leaving at least. There seemed to be several guards in the way, all armed and armored, wanting to stop him from leaving the prison room. Dream Brendon was having none of that, and showed off how skilled he was his an axe.

Dream Furlok didn't help him, as it was far more fun to watch her kismesis get the shit beat out of him, as well as watch him beat the shit out of the guards in return; slowly carving himself a bloody murder canyon to the front door.

Furlok followed him out the door and down to the streets of Derse, which were completely empty. The Dersites had all heard the legends of the Prince, and knew how dangerous it would be if they had to deal with him. The moment he'd woken up, all but the guards had fled.

Brendon decided to look around derse, wondering if there was anything interesting on the purple planet. Furlok followed above, floating through the air. As they were both dream selves, both could fly, but Brendon didn't see much point in it.

Brendon wasn't sure what exactly he was looking for. He was less in control of his dreamself, and as a result more intensely emotional; hence his carving through the guards with no second thoughts whatsoever.

As he walked though, the thing he hadn't been aware he was looking for came to him: Valtina. Dreamself Valtina mind you, having flown all the way over from Prospit. The clouds above on the golden planet showed the past, present, and future, so when Valtina had seen Brendon on Derse, she'd immediately taken off to find him.

Brendon watched her float down in front of him, his eyes becoming pale diamonds as she floated down, in much the same way that those struck with sudden romantic love were said to have their eyes become hearts.

Furlok snickered, "Someone's got a Pale crush~" She teased him, though he didn't even pretend to care as he went over to Valtina to greet her. "Heya." She greeted him with a smile, not hesitating to give him a hug, both gaining a light blush from it.

Furlok was tempted to continue mocking the likely soon-to-be moirales, but decided not to. It was poor blackrom etiquette to actively make fun of your kismesis' other relationships, and she guessed it still counted even though they'd not gotten together yet.

* * *

Brendon and Furlok, having met back up and gotten… acquainted so to speak, were now carving their way through Furlok's land.

Brendon it seemed had lightly more patience with the disgruntled shopkeepers in the market area; and even less patience with the monsters roaming the pathways between them, cutting or shooting them down with almost gleeful enthusiasm.

Furlok couldn't help but be sickened by this, both from him taking such pleasure in her land, and from her slightly agreeing with him on the matter of dealing with the monsters. She decided to set that aside for now, taking out her brushware and helping him clear out the monsters.

As They did though, two different threats happened that gave them pause for thought. The first was more subtle, hard to spot unless you had your eyes on Brendon.

He'd blocked a shot from a mechanical imp's turret gun and then tore through it; except he hadn't blocked it. It had torn through his outfit and left a bleeding wound in his chest that he just didn't seem able to feel.

Upon further inspection, Brendon was actually covered in damage that he hadn't noticed. Cuts, bruises, holes, burns; his body was a mess, but something had been hiding it from view, both from Furlok and from Brendon himself.

Some power had just kept him from feeling any pain, and hidden the damage from view. He summoned Droogbarsprite to heal him, and he could feel an actual difference when he was healed.

Where before he felt normal, now he felt actively stronger than before. They chalked it up to berserker madness at the time, willfully ignoring the question of how the damage had been completely invisible for a while. What could be loess easily ignored was Furlok's killing of an Ogre later that day.

Both of them noticed it, and looking back,Furlok had noticed it several times and just not taken note of it. A projectile had been fired at her, but the moment it hit her it dropped to the ground, not affecting her.

On top of that, she then jetting at the ogre like she'd been fired from a gun herself, cutting the beast's head off easily. the two of them, unable to further ignore the presence of these abilities, went to the chat to ask the others if any of them had experienced something like that.

 **DT: Oh totally, I didn't think it was something we were keeping secret. I've been hoping through time for like two days now.**

 **PP; Dammit JGff, that would have bGGn useful info!**

 **LS: Pretty sure I've been walking through walls recently.**

 **PN: I've been healing my consorts. Not with items or anything, just doing it. PP: MothGr fuckGrs!**

 **OP: NoW, NoW, There's no need for thaT. I've been getting a few minor abilities as welL. I think all of us will based on our combination of class and aspecT, Which are given to us upon entering the gamE. I'm the Seer of Heart for examplE, And based on the powers describeD, I'd be willing to say that Jeff is our Heir of TimE. ValtinA, You're a Sylph of Life I would guesS, One who heals with energy and desirE. Risura is clearly a Void playeR, Though I'm not sure about the class yeT. Furlok, I believe you may be the Thief of SpacE, One who actively steals locatioN, ShapE, SizE, And velocity from otherS. When the bullet hit yoU, You stole the movement of the bulleT, Causing it to stop dead before it hit you and you to move at its speeD.**

 **PP: SGriously? NicG!**

 **PN: What about Brendon?**

 **OP: WelL, Going on a guesS, I'd have to guess he's the Bard of DooM, Or perhaps even the PrincE. Either waY, A potentially powerful Doom based fighteR.**

 **PN: Doom player?**

 **OP: Almost certainlY. My first assumption was a Life playeR, Going by his personalitY, But the Prince and Bard are both members of the Destroyer clasS, Which always appear as their opposite aspecT; Doom in this case.**

 **PN:... interesting.. Well, I'll be going now, I've got a lot to handle here on my world.**

 **[ProduceNinja has signed off]**

* * *

Valtina had been trudging her way through the wastelands of her land, having learned that the consorts living on LoGaR had written legends of some destined hero called the Sylph; which was evidently her.

She'd found it amusing that she was classified as hero despite being on the villain team, but she still liked the idea of having been prophesied. Apparently there were towers across the Land of Glyphs and Ruin, and at the top of the towers there were slabs of stone with powerful glyphs carved onto them.

If the Sylph put her hand on the glyph stone, she could send a surge of magic through the planet and heal entire sections of the land all at once, permanently fixing the land rather than having to slowly restore it manually.

She'd battled her way to the first slab and placed her hand on top of it, sending a surge of green and blue energy through it. The glyphs glowed bright, a rush of energy flowing down the stone and into the ground, a wave of energy washing over the land around her.

She could see it, see the dirt become nutriance filled and rich again, bits of grass sprouting from the soil. She smiled at this, knowing that the consorts would have an easier time farming this land.

Shortly after she'd done this, the message from Furlok and Brendon had gone out, and she'd decided to respond. It had been nice to hear from Brendon again, especially after the amazing palerom dream she'd had; which she didn't at all intend to mention to him.

But then Aspico had mentioned that he was a Doom player. Not just a Doom player, but a Destroyer class, perhaps even the Prince of Doom. Without knowledge of what the classes meant, Valtina could only assume that this meant Brendon was the ruler of Doom.

Under ordinary circumstances, Valtina would have been more open minded and willing to ask about it; especially with Brendon, but now with actual powers and prophecy being brought into this, Valtina was unsettled deeply by this knowledge.

 _The ruler of all destruction and doom shall bring death and pain to all those who seek to maintain the happiness of the world. The Sylph of Life must combat the King's power, restoring the others and leading to victory over the King. Should the Sylph fail or refuse, doom will consume all lands, all worlds._

It had been a line of the consort's story about the Sylph that she hadn't paid much attention to at the time. But now.. Now she was worried.


	21. Chapter 21

Patior, or rather Patior's dream self, was hiding within a tower on Derse. He'd been gathering more and more information about the territory the longer he;d been there, he wasn't sure why he was gathering information, it was happening almost instinctively, but he was learning quite a lot about the place.

He'd learned how frightened of the 'sleeping heroes' that were locked up in the spires. They referred to them as the Mage, Prince, Thief, Heir, Knight, and Witch. The words meant nothing to him, but he'd learned them. He was more interesting in the Queen.

The Queen of Derse, known as the Black Queen, was a slender carapacian woman with an aura of power around her. Patior had caught sight of her only once, and despite her not knowing he was there, and despite his having no info on her at the time, he'd been immediately terrified of her.

He couldn't explain why, there was just something about the way she carried herself, like she knew for a fact that if she wanted someone dead, they would be. She had a small group of other Dersites that carried out specific orders for her, and currently all four of them were being sent to 'deal with the Prince'.

Patior wasn't sure what this meant, but he knew that she would be alone while they were out. Patior could feel instinctively that this was going to be his best shot to get into her castle. He wasn't sure why he needed to get into her castle, but he could feel that he needed to. Under ordinary circumstances, he wouldn't follow petty instincts without any logic to explain them, but he was willing to make an exception just this once.

* * *

Patior opened his eyes. The dreams of Derse were starting to get annoying, but he supposed there was probably some point to them that he'd just not figured out yet. He rolled himself over, looking through the scope he'd set up.

Using strategic alchemization, Patior had essentially creating a small fort for himself. It kept the monsters away from him while he rested, and could be stored in his code modus whenever he wasn't using it.

He'd left Java to her own devices once he'd set the fans at the correct angles for her. He was certain she'd be able to get the biplanes down, though what she would end up doing next, he wasn't sure.

He on the other hand had slowly made his way across her land, slaying any boss monsters from a distance with his rifle. He guessed this game hadn't had any testers. If it had, they'd have likely realized how broken sniper rifles were in it.

After a few minutes of waiting, the boss guarding the gate showed itself. It was a Greater Arachnid, a ten foot spider with metal, hooked legs and an unsettling smile painted on its center. It would likely be an extremely difficult fight.

But Patior wouldn't have to know if it were or not, as his Air Target Burst Sniper killed it in a single shot through its head. Patior took down his fort, gathered the grist, and headed into the gate to leave Java's land.

He appeared on a platform in the branches of a tree. Said tree was in the middle of a swampy forest. He wasn't sure where he was, but after looking around for a few minutes, he found Dustine battling a winged, mouse eared, scorpion tailed golem.

He was legitimately surprised by what he saw. He'd expected to see Dustine trying to avoid combat, trying to befriend or sneak passed enemies. Certainly if Dustine was indeed fighting, he'd at least be on the defensive.

But no, the happy go lucky clown worshipping Dustine was wailing on the golem like it had personally insulted the core of his being, practically roaring with anger as his mace took chunks off of its body. He barely seemed to notice the powerful strikes he was taking, even when they hit hard enough to send him through a tree.

Patior was especially confused by the purpose aura that seemed to be radiating off of him, causing steam to rise from the marshy terrain at his feet. He was in full tilt berserker mode, and it was actually somewhat impressive.

He was tempted to just wait and watch to see how well Dustine was able to fight the golem, but figured it would be a waste of time when he could finish things off himself. He set up his sniper rifle, took aim, and fired at the golem's head.

The stone creature died instantly, though only because of the amount of damage it had taken already from Dustine. Dustine looked confused by this, then saw Patior approaching him from the hill.

"Oh.. uh, hey man," Dustine greeted, trying to catch his breath and switch gears in his mind from the rage state he'd been in to the carefree state of mind he forced himself into when he was talking with others, "Um.. how much of that did you see?"

"Enough to know that you've been holding out on me," Patior said, "Let's go, I'll lag behind and give you cover." He said, heading forward. Dustine hesitated, but nodded and went ahead of Patior, who took aim through his scope as he moved forward slowly.

As they progressed through LoMaW, Patior got to thinking about the game they were playing. Surely the two groups of players, heroes and villains as they'd called themselves, would end up crossing paths physically at some point. The gates would likely start leading to the lands of enemy team members.

And if the objective was to help your team members.. Then surely he would also have to hinder the enemy. Why else would they have named their teams 'heroes' and 'villains'? They were headed towards conflict.

From there, Patior got to thinking about what the end of this game would hold. Considering how the world itself had ended before they'd started playing, then victory would mean getting somewhere else to live.

And if there were two teams, and the two were meant to be pitted against each other.. Then perhaps there was only room enough for one team to take the prize at the end. He couldn't see any other logical reason for the separate teams.

It was a rather morbid thought, and even Patior was stopped by it, but his mind quickly rationalized and he kept going. Surely if they were defeated in this game, killed by someone on the other team, the effects wouldn't be permanent. Sure it was a game with a world on the line, but it was still just a game; code and mechanics, nothing more.

And with these thoughts in mind, Patior started to formulate plans to pick off the heroes team before they could start picking off the villains. If he'd figured this out, surely Aspico couldn't be far behind him.

* * *

Java had thanked Patior for the help with the fans. She couldn't have been able to figure out the precise angles to put them at by herself. He'd left before she actually started getting the pilots down, but she was able to handle that part by herself.

She adjusted fans, and helped the pilots land their planes safely one after the other. Once the consorts were no longer trapped in the air, they were more than willing to refuel one of the biplanes and let Java take it.

Patior had explained to Java how there were gates that let players go from one world to another and visit the other players in the session. She smiled as she started up the plane and took off, thoughts of finding Arvis' land in her mind.

* * *

Lurabo pulled herself onto another platform, panting heavily. She wasn't sure how long she'd been climbing, but she knew she needed a break. Thankfully there was another platform at about the midpoint of the ladder, and she was able to rest.

Naturally, the platform wasn't completely empty of threats. A small swarm of winged basilisk flew down at her the moment she was in sight. The yellow blood drew her Arcane, waving it through the air and sending a blast of magic energy combined with a pulse of her telekinesis to keep them at bay just long enough for her to draw from her deck.

She ended up drawing two cards instead of just one, and it was rather a moot point considering the first card was the Death card, which caused all the basilisk to drop to the ground, writhing on the verge of death and melting into piles of grist.

But the second card she'd drawn was the High Priestess, a card connected to learning, intuition, impatience, and knowledge in general. It gave Lurabo an instant insight to something she'd not put a modicum of thought into yet.

It showed her the boss. Not the boss of the entire game, but the boss of her planet. It seemed there were actually two final bosses; the one that everyone would fight at the real end of the game, and the one before it, the boss that each player would have to fight to get the opportunity to fight the final boss.

The Denizen.

'Cetus,' Lurabo thought, learning perhaps a bit too early for her own good the name of her planet's Denizen. She saw a silhouette in her mind, a massive serpent, too vast to fully comprehend, with a golden yellow shimmer around its edges, and two searing bright lights coming from the top of it, Cetus' eyes staring down at her.

It was a good thing Lurabo wasn't closer to the edge of the platform when this happened, because if she were, she may very well have fallen off of it when she collapsed from the force of this new information invading her mind.

Thankfully she managed to maintain consciousness. 'Gotta tell the others..' she thought.


	22. Chapter 22

Java woke up with a deep, heated blush on her face. She looked down at her pants and swore, "Not again." She grumbled in frustration. The dreams she was having about Arvis, which she believed to be entirely fictional and not happening in any reality, were starting to get out of hand; no pun intended.

After getting herself cleaned off from her unintentional nightly mess, she got back into the plane she's 'borrowed' and flew off towards the mountains. She still wasn't a hundred percent sure what she would find on the other side of the mountains, but she was all the way ready to find out.

She figured she had exactly enough fuel to get over the mountains and to whatever was on the other side of it. That is, assuming nothing went horribly wrong between now and when she got over.

So of course something went horribly wrong before she got over. Specifically, her flight had attracted a swarm of flying monsters. Not imps either, which Java could have probably handled or at least out flown. No, she was being followed by jet winged Ogres; a flock of five.

Java tried to get the plane moving as fast as she possibly could, but she realized pretty quickly just how impossible it was going to be to avoid getting blown out of the air. The best she could do was immediately head directly up before she could crash into the cliffs, causing two of the ogres to slam into the rocks and explode into grist.

Java flew as high up as she could, realizing that a laser shot from one of the ogres had caught the plane on fire. Knowing it was bound to explode when the flames reached the fuel, she cut the engine, jumping from the pilot seat and letting her Flight Pack keep her airborne.

The ogres who'd been pursuing her crashed into the plane, causing it to explode and kill them. Not all of them, Java realized to her misfortune. One of them had survived, though it was badly damaged, and tackled into her midair.

Thankfully it had taken enough damage to be killed pretty easily, Java knocking its block off with her brass knuckles. She then realized that she wasn't still floating. The tackle had damaged her flight pack, and she was in fact now falling.

Falling from remarkably high up. Higher than any human had reportedly survived falling from, and falling towards extremely hard, extremely jagged cliffs. Her blood turned to ice as she realized she didn't have anything to stop her.

The flight pack was broken, and Pilotsprite wasn't present to save her. Java felt herself begin to sob as she fell, the knowledge that she was about to die hitting her almost harder than her landing was about to.

She mentally apologized to all of her friends as she dropped, apologizing lastly to Arvis. The last thing to go through her head, other than the bones in her feet of course, was an actual admission to herself how much she wished she'd made the dreams she'd been having about Arvis a reality.

And then she landed. It would have been painful had she not died instantly from the impact. Had she been paying attention as she fell, she might have noticed that she hadn't been falling towards any ordinary rock though. No, she'd landed on an oddly flat stone, like a bed. It had a symbol carved into it that her remains were now covering, a symbol showing a wind current flowing; a symbol that was now glowing.

* * *

Risura was panting heavily as he staggered out of the tall grass, seeing the entrance to a massive dark cave. The jade blooded troll had been fighting his way through the grassy area for… he wasn't even sure how long at this point.

He was drenched in sweat, mud, crushed grass goop, and blood; both from himself and from monsters. Even as physically inclined as he was, he was still winded from all the combat he'd had to do to get here.

But he'd found it. He'd decided to find what the source of the laughing that could always be heard at least slightly on his planet. He'd done his best to ignore it up to now, but it was starting to grate on his nerves.

But now he was outside the cave where it seemed to be coming from. The laughter was no longer subtle, sounding like it was actually present physically rather than just as a small sound in the back of his mind.

He'd been planning on resting for at least an hour to make sure he was back in fighting form, his Cureall Clothing healing his body so he'd be ready by the time he'd go in, but he ended up only waiting a few minutes. The laughing, it was driving in mad, he had to know what was causing it. He walked into the cave, certain he could handle whatever was going to come out of it.

 _\- .- -. -. .-.. . / -... ..- -.. -.. .. . ... .-.-.- .-.-.- .-.-.- / .-.. . - .-. ... / -... . -.-. - - . / - .- -. -. .-.. . / -... ..- -.. -.. .. . ... .-.-.- .-.-.- .-.-.-_

.- . .-.. -.-. - - . / - - / - ..- .-. / -.. . -. / -.- - ..- -. -. / - -. . -..- / ... .- ...- . / -.- - ..- / .- -. -.- / -.- ..- . ... - .. - -. ... ..-..

 _\- .- -. -. .-.. . / -... ..- -.. -.. .. . ... .-.-.- .-.-.- .-.-.- / .-.. . - .-. ... / -... . -.-. - - . / - .- -. -. .-.. . / -... ..- -.. -.. .. . ... .-.-.- .-.-.- .-.-.-_

... - .- / - -.. -.. / - ... .- - / -.- - ..- .-. ...- . / - .-. .. . -.. / - - / .-.. . .- ...- . / - ... . / ...- - .. -.. / -... . ... .. -. -.. / -.- - ..- .-.-.- / -.. .. -.. / -.- - ..- / - ... .. -. -.- / - ... .- - / - ... . / ...- - .. -.. / .- - ..- .-.. -.. / -. - - / .-.. - - -.- / ..-. - .-. / -.- - ..- ..-.. / -.- - ..- / - ..- ... - / ... .- ...- . / ... . .- .-. -.. / ..- ... / -.-. .- .-.. .-.. .. -. -. / -.- - ..- .-.-.-

 _\- .- -. -. .-.. . / -... ..- -.. -.. .. . ... .-.-.- .-.-.- .-.-.- / .-.. . - .-. ... / -... . -.-. - - . / - .- -. -. .-.. . / -... ..- -.. -.. .. . ... .-.-.- .-.-.- .-.-.-_

.- - .-. .-. -.- / -. - - / .-.. .. - - .-.. . / -... .- .-. -.. -..- / .- . / ... ... .- .-.. .-.. / ... ... - .- / -.- - ..- / - ... . / .- .- -.- ... / - ..-. / - ... . / ...- - .. -.. -..- / .- . / ... ... .- .-.. .-.. / ... .. -. -. / ..-. - .-. / -.- - ..- / - ..- .-. / -... .-.. . ... ... . -.. / ... - -. -. .-.-.-

 _\- .- -. -. .-.. . / -... ..- -.. -.. .. . ... .-.-.- .-.-.- .-.-.- / .-.. . - .-. ... / -... . -.-. - - . / - .- -. -. .-.. . / **-... ..- -.. -.. .. . ... .-.-.- .-.-.- .-.-.-**_

 _ **... - -. -.-**_

Risura staggered out of the cave. He wasn't sure if he was conscious. He wasn't even sure he was alive. He was only entirely sure of one thing: He was laughing.

* * *

Arvis rushed into battle full of energy and vigor. He'd woken up from a wonderful dream, and between the rest and the mental pleasure, he was ready for an intense fight in whatever form it came to him in.

Today it happened to come in the form of a thirty foot golem made of steel and boiling plasma that had risen from one of the bloody rivers that ran through LoBaV, claws of silver and eyes all across its body.

Hook sword in one hand, hookshot in the other, Arvis charged in to attack, already working out how to bring the beast down without getting completely wasted along the way. He couldn't wait to finish defeating the monster.

He couldn't wait to tell Java about it.

* * *

Jeff had continued to explore the extent of his time powers. He could still only go back and forward so far, and twice more he came across that one future version of himself that was dressed in all red.

He tried to push his questioned to the back of his mind and focus on his mission. He managed to get the second key with minimal effort now that he could slow time to a crawl and just wail on the key keeper boss.

But as he went to get the third key, a thought occurred to him. If he could time travel, then he couldn't possibly be wasting time! So of course it was possible for him to spend time looking into how he would become that one future version of himself without wasting any time!

With that cleared up, he began jumping back and forth in the hopes of seeing himself again so he could ask himself what the deal was. Try as he might though, he couldn't find himself from the future or past again.

Actually, he couldn't find himself from the present either… he couldn't feel his body anymore. He looked down at his hands and saw nothing but red. Not like red cloth like future him had been wearing; his skin was red, like he'd become some glowing energy.

He couldn't feel himself anymore, but he could still feel. He could feel time. He could feel it moving around him, moving through him. Had he… had he somehow become time? Was he literally composed of it right now?

The only thing that kept him from freaking out at that thought was the knowledge that it wouldn't kill him. He'd seen his future self, so he couldn't die right now right? Unless… unless time could be changed by his time travel, and it was still possible for him to die.

It was this thought that made him panic and lose control. He shut his eyes tight, and when he opened them, he was a great many hundreds of years in the future. He didn't know where he was, the room was too dark, but he could hear voices, voices that he would eventually learn through talking with Aspico belonged to the Exiled who'd been talking to them all.

"God Tier? What's that?" A gruff, confused male voice asked. "It's the pinnacle of a player in this game," A smooth, intelligent sounding woman replied, "Every player has a special bed somewhere on their land called a Quest Bed. If a player dies on their Quest Bed, then they ascend and become a God Tier.

"All players can learn to use their classpect's powers without ascending, even master them, but as a god tier the powers are second nature even to those who never used them at all before their ascension. Well, for most. The Page will likely still have trouble."

"So.. it's a good thing the Rogue died?" The man asked. "Well, not good, but not necessarily horrible. It's potentially wonderful I would say," The woman explained. "God tier… are they immortal then?" A younger male voice asked curiously.

The woman giggled, "Well, yes and no. They aren't literal gods, as much as their powers might make it seem like they are. God tiers cannot die under most circumstances. They'll be revived after just a few seconds of being dead. They can still die under two circumstances: if the death is Heroic, or if it is Just.

"A heroic death is whenever the player dies doing something, well, heroic. Protecting someone, fighting for something righteous, or dying in a way that would make them a martyr.

"A Just death comes whenever the god tier dies after doing something evil. If the god tier has committed a heinous crime, done something cruel or evil, as is killed shortly after, they'll remain dead.

"If they change their ways, or aren't in control of their actions, then the Just-ness of the death can wear off over time, but if the death is happening as a direct result of their evil deeds, like revenge for example, then it doesn't matter how long after the deed it happens or even if the god tier changed their ways; it'll still be a Just death."

"I'm confused…" The young voice said, followed by more chuckles from the woman, "That's alright, you just worry about watching the Maid of Light progress. She learned about the Denizen right?"

"Yeah! It was super cool!"

Jeff wondered about this, and kept the thought of it in mind as he tried to focus on time again, trying to become time like he had before and return to a second after he left.

He missed his target by a few hours, and sighed, but honestly the timing was remarkable well; as the shifting surface of LoGaK had caused a stone bed with a gear on it to rise from the ground under his feet. He was now standing on what he could only assume was his Quest Bed.

Which raised the question: should he attempt to kill himself on it?

* * *

Mutosi looked at the gate in front of her. It was sure to lead to Risura's land unless she was critically misunderstanding how the gates worked. She hadn't thought she would find it so soon, but here it was.

She sighed, recalling what Patior had told her. He'd only told her as far as she knew, because he'd known she was the only one who'd be able to understand and agree that killing off the other players was necessary.

But there was one disagreement that she had with his line of thinking. Mutosi felt quite sure that it wasn't a team that would win, it would just be whoever the strongest players were; the final few alive at the end of the game.

And if this was true, then she couldn't allow anyone who would be willing to corrupt the new world they were trying to create with bullshit ideologies. Risura was one of those people. He couldn't be allowed to win.

She was going to have to kill him.


	23. Chapter 23

Arvis woke from a much more fitful sleep than normal. He wasn't sure what had made it so much more uncomfortable than normal at first. It couldn't have been that he was attempting to sleep in a cave-because the consorts on his planet were assholes and refused to let him sleep in any of the inns-he'd done that several times now and they'd been the most peaceful rests he'd had.

After he'd gotten up and headed out for the day to try and make it to the nearby tower, he figured it must have been the dream he'd been having. It had started as the recurring dream he'd been having recently about Java the two of them doing things he didn't feel comfortable saying out loud.

But then, before either of them could, eh, 'finish', Java had vanished. It had been sudden, jarring, and quite frankly had left him with an uneasy sense of dread, like something bad had happened to Java.

But he shook it off. It couldn't be true, it was just a dream after all.

* * *

Java had been for about thirty seconds. This was about thirty-five seconds longer than Java ever wanted to be dead for. Regardless, at the end of the thirty seconds, she found herself sitting on the stone bed she'd landed on.

She was very confused for a multitude of reasons. The most immediately of which was the fact that she was no longer wearing her previous outfit. Her clothes had been stored within her Charm modus, and she was now dressed in a sky blue outfit with gold kneehigh boots.

The outfit was extremely soft, with a lighter blue symbol on the chest that was identical to the wind marking on the table she was sitting on. It had a cowl that was already pulled up over her head, a bandit-like face mask on as well.

The second pressing matter was the blood surrounding her. There was far too much of it. If fact, she was pretty sure that if she didn't have that amount of blood inside of her body, she would be dead.

Actually, hadn't she been dead not very long ago? She remembered now how far she'd fallen, how hard she'd hit the stone bed. It had all been so fast, and she couldn't believe that she'd not only survived, but done so with no physical injury on her body.

Before she could think about this however, a few of the mountain dwelling monsters made themselves known. A cybernetic jade basilisk with harpy wings and twin tails, and an oil Archeon with a scorpion tail, roots, and a machine gun both came out of a nearby cave to attempt to attack her.

Java gasped, jumping back as she raised her hands to shield herself from them, and as she did, something strange happened. When she wasn't immediately blasted to death, she looked over and saw that both monsters had just sorta… stopped.

They were looking down at the ground, a glazed over look in their eyes. From their mouths, a blue mist like substance was leaking out. Java moved her hands, finding curiously that the blue gas followed her hand movements, being pulled forcefully out of the monsters' mouths.

As more and more of it left, the monsters slowly turned more and more grey in color, slumping on the ground and going more and more inert until eventually they were effectively dead on the ground despite not having been killed.

"The hell?" Java questioned. She started to move towards the mist to try and inspect it, only to find that she wasn't walking; she was floating in the air, flying. It took her brain a few seconds to catch up and realize what was wrong with that.

She wasn't wearing her flight pack. Even if she were, her flight pack wasn't able to sustain consistent hovering and movement for very long, especially not as fluidly as Java was moving now. Java was flying, entirely by herself.

* * *

 **BF: Guys, I'm extremely fucking confused right now. PN: I'm kinda freaking out myself, what's going on with you?**

 **BF: I.. I think I died. I crashed landed out of the sky and landed on this bed thing? And now I'm back, and I'm wearing this weird new outfit.**

 **[Born2Fly posted an image]**

 **PN: Woah, that actually looks really cute on you. BF: Oh totally, but where the hell did it come from?**

 **EE: I think I can explain what's happening. First, Valtina, what's wrong with you?**

 **PN: You… actually care?**

 **EE: Of course I do, why wouldn't I?**

 **PN: You're Patior, I don't remember you caring about anything other than your research and once in the distance past, Aspico. Even that caring was laced with bitter hatred.**

 **EE: Well we're on the same team in this game dammit, if I want to decide to care, then I will. Please, what's going on? I might be able to help.**

 **BF: Please Val, just tell him so he'll tell me what's happening to me.**

 **PN: Fine, fine. I'm just.. I'm starting to get a little afraid.. Of Brendon.**

 **BF: Of Brendon? How/why? Aren't you two, like, moirales?**

 **PN: / we're not moirales, and we definitely aren't right now. Aspico said he's the Prince of Doom, and I found a prophecy on my planet about the ruler of all destruction bringing death to my entire planet. If it's true.. And if it is about Brendon, then he could destroy our entire session before we ever get to make our new world.**

 **BF: Oh god..**

 **EE: You were right to be worried about it. PN: I am?**

 **EE: Yes. as the Prince of Doom, Brendon is acting as the session's killswitch. He'll bring death to us all if he's allowed to continue through the game. He doesn't even know it, but he's going to be our destruction. I knew from my research that someone on my team was going to have to be the one to stop him, but I wasn't sure which one of us was going to be strong enough to do it. Now I'm sure it's you.**

 **BF: You're saying she has to kill him!? Are you crazy!**

 **EE: I don't like it anymore than you do, but it's him or us. Besides, we don't know for sure that they'll stay dead. This is a game remember? They'll come back after we win the game.**

 **PN: I.. I wish it didn't have to be this way. I think I already knew what had to happen, but I didn't want to believe it, I still don't. But if it's for the session.. And if he's gonna come back after the game.. I don't have a choice. What about Java, what's happening with her? And what did you mean 'they'?**

 **EE: She's ascended, reached the God Tier.**

 **BF: God Tier?**

 **EE: Yes, it basically means you've unlocked your powers. Just like I'm the Mage of Mind, and Brendon the Prince of Doom, based on that picture, I'd have to say you're the Rogue of Breath. You'll be able to steal the freedom from others and give it to different sources, literally 'taking their breath' away. As for why I said 'they'.. I think she needs to use her powers to weaken the hero team.**

 **BF: What?**

 **EE: Yes, I'm sure of it. As the first to God Tier, we have to make sure none of the hero team members ascend as well. Your powers are perfect for it. You'll be able to take away their ability to keep going. I think Arvis is the best target.**

 **BF: What!? Why Arvis!?**

 **EE: I've been checking into the hero team members. He's the Page of Blood. Blood is the opposite aspect to Breath, so he's especially dangerous to you, and especially easy for you to take down. And as a Page, he's got more potential power than anyone in the entire session. He and Brendon are the two members of that session that most have to be stopped. There's gates on your planets that will take you to them, and with a few screenshots of your planet, I think I can figure out which ones will be the right ones. Keep strong team, we have to win this remember? At all costs.**

Patior took a deep breath as he got Valtina and Java to agree to his plan. He gave them the instructions to head to the proper gates to go to Brendon and Arvis' lands respectively. Both of them had the elements of surprise, so he had no doubt that they would be able to handle it.

But he did have doubts that what he was doing was right. He shook his head, he couldn't afford to let emotions get in the way of his thinking. It wasn't rational. It didn't matter whether or not he was almost certain that they would both stay dead after being killed. He couldn't let them ruin the session and prevent them from making the new universe. He was going to win this game, no matter what it took.

* * *

 **Google 'Rogue of Breath Outfit' if you want to see what Java's wearing.**


	24. Chapter 24

"So why are we gathering frogs?" Brendon questioned his kismesis. They'd been going for about an hour now, heading across the frog infested wasteland to try and capture as many as they could before they hopped away.

Brendon would use his Farwalkers to just be in the right place at the right time to catch one mid-hop while Furlok used her budding Thief of Space powers to flash-step to frogs farther away from her, momentarily stealing distance to catch them.

"For the machine inside the temple." Furlok said, pointing a thumb to the temple with the giant frog head carved into it, "It needs to clone as many as we can get from out here. I think it's actually the point of my planet."

"Really?" Brendon asked curiously, looking from the frogs contained on little cards in his wallet modus to the machine filled temple, "What does the frog cloning do?" "I haven't the foggiest clue." Furlok admitted, "Don't judge me, you didn't even figure out what you were supposed to be doing on your world."

"No, it's fine, I don't mind." Brendon said, catching another frog and storing it in his modus. This caught Furlok off guard, "You.. don't mind?" She questioned him, not even paying attention to the frogs jumping passed her.

Under any normal circumstances that would have been grounds for a ten minute arguement, or at least a few snide comments and maybe a pitch romantic smack or two. But now Brendon just.. Didn't mind?

The implications hit Brendon only a few seconds after they hit Furlok, "I.. no, I don't." He said again, surprised now that he thought about it. He hadn't been paying much attention to it, but he'd not been hating his time with Furlok on LoSaF.

Not even in the 'ugh this sucks by I'm gonna tap hot kismesis ass later' way either, he'd just genuinely been enjoying himself with her. And though Furlok didn't want to think about it, Furlok had been feeling the same way.

Their mutual romantic hatred was.. Waning. This caused both of them to panic now that it had been brought to the forefront, and they scrambled to message Aspico to get her help understanding what was happening.

* * *

Aspico charged across the grassy hill, taking a leap off the top and gliding with her feather lined Clear Mind Covers. The Amber Oni below her roared up at her in anger, firing up at her with its machine gun.

The boss monster had the basic shape of the Oni monster, a humanoid with demonic facial features. It glowed yellow with Amber skin, two hooked tails, a turtle shell, venus flytrap head with a painted smile on it, one scorpion claw and one normal hand with a machine gun in it. Looking at it nearly gave Aspico a headache.

She dropped her gliding to fall fast, avoiding the barrage of bullets and letting the cloak out again to slow her fall. She landed hard on the Amber Oni's shell, driving her Pitch Piercer into the back of the monster's head.

Under most circumstances that would have been the end, but the Amber Oni was tougher than the normal monsters. The hooked tails surged up, stabbing into Aspico's shoulders and pulling her off, throwing her to the ground.

The boss monster turned and spewed noxious gases in her direction. Aspico backed up quickly, closing her eyes to focus on nothing but her target. Her mind was clear, her blade was ready, and with a single breath, she launched herself forward.

She spent less than a second inside the cloud of poison gas before she exited the other side, her rapier stabbing deep into the Amber Oni, cracking the turtle shell on the other side. It howled in pain, Aspico wrenching the blade upwards as she began to run up the Oni's body; killing it in the process.

She collected the grist happily, returning to the nearby town. 'You're getting better.' The Exiled told her. Aspico shrugged as she entered the town, looking over the feline consorts she'd been helping for some time recently.

She'd found that the people were not just schitzophrentic like she'd first thought they were. In truth, their intentions were always the same, but something was causing their passions to be twisted into knots, preventing them from expressing themselves properly.

As a result, they ended up bouncing from one activity to another constantly, never satisfied with what they were doing for more than a few seconds. They were trapped within labyrinths of their own emotions.

But Aspico was able to help them. She'd found that, with a little concentration, she was able to sense the consorts' passion. She could see what they truly wanted to do, and if she monitored them and made sure they kept going at that specific thing, be it painting, cooking, dancing, carving, coding, writing, etc, then eventually they would overcome the wall placed in front of them and be once again able to express themselves.

She'd slowly but surely assisted everyone in this town, but wanted to check up on them at least once more before she left. She'd seen a few of them slip back into the previous chaos once or twice if not helped.

They thanked her constantly, but Aspico refused any rewards save for directions to the next town, "As Seer of Heart, I must find my way across all of LoCaF." She told them as they brought her maps.

'About time. I was wondering if you'd ever be satisfied with them.' The Exile said, her tone making it easy for Aspico to imagine the roll of her eyes as she said it; though she wasn't actually sure what the Exiled looked like.

'It's not my fault they were so badly affected.' Aspico replied as she headed through the grasslands, casually slaying the shale and marble imps in her path. They were too weak to pose any real challenge at this point.

As she went, she received a message, or rather several messages all in a row. They were from Brendon and Furlok. A pitch squabble no doubt. Much as she liked helping people through their romantic issues, she didn't have the time at the moment. She ignored them for now, continuing across her land towards the next town.

* * *

Lurabo drew the Seven of Cups from her tarot deck, summoning three illusions of her lusus. They dashed into the horde of monsters in front of her as a distraction as the yellow blooded troll held her Arcane aloft, closing her eyes to focus her telekinesis.

It connected to the magical power of the Arcane, firing in a wave of power in front of her. The mercury and oil imps were blasted to grist almost instantly, leaving only the basilisks and ogres when the attack was done.

The ogres continued chasing the illusions while the basilisks slithered towards Lurabo. She drew a hand from her Slicer Suits, flinging the razor sharp playing cards at them like ninja stars. The cards hit their marks, carving through the basilisks.

This left only the ogres. Lurabo drew the Nine of Swords, a pulse of destructions causing the remaining monsters to crumble and fall to pieces on the platform. Lurabo sighed in relief, climbing up the ladder in the center of the platform to the treasure chest in the center of it.

As she did, she felt the messager going crazy with messages from someone. She sat down at the edge of the platform in the spotlight and checked the messages.

 **FS and PP simultaneously: We/WG need/nGGD help!/hGldi**

 **FS: Aspico, we're sorry if we're bothering you, but we're really freaking out right now.**

 **PP: PlGasG rGsponp, !t'll only takG a sGconp.**

 **SI: whaT's g0ing 0n?**

 **PP: Just a.. ! guGss a proplGm for us, p!tch-w!sG. Don't worry about !t Lur, wG'll wa!t for Asp!co.**

Lurabo bit her lip at this. This was definitely ashen territory. She knew she should probably just let Aspico take care of it. She'd do a way better job than Lurabo could have, Lurabo was sure of it. But… she couldn't help herself.

 **SI: MaybE i c0uld hElp? whaT's ThE issuE?**

 **FS: Well… it's our fighting. We.. haven't been. Not for a few days now. No fights, arguments, not even disagreements. Maybe a few insults, but they're all token and forced. We're just getting along really well, and we're just kinda worried.**

 **PP: K!smGs!s arGn't supposGd to gGt along l!kG th!s, !t's frGak!ng us out. You don't th!nk wG'Gr.. Not work!ng as blackrom anymore?**

 **SI: NoT aT all! iT's perfecTly normal whaT's happening.**

 **FS: It is?**

 **SI: DefiniTely. somETimes kismEsis have days, wEeks, Even yEars of Enjoying Each oThers company. iT's callEd oscillaTion, and iT's jusT a Temporary spurT of fun in another quadrant. Kismesis can briefly become red, red can briefly become black, it's perfectly natural; healthy even. Normally it's a good idea to have an Auspistice to regulate and schedule red and blackrom times for you.**

 **PP: Oh my Lur, u com!ng onto us? };)**

 **SI: / w-whaT?**

 **FS: You mentioned that having an auspistice is a big help right? Were you offering or something~?**

 **SI: N-no of course noT! IT'd be supEr rudE to suggEst such a Thing wiThout bEing asked, and for all i know you don'T evEn need one, I mean.. I..**

 **PP: RGlax Lur, wG'Gr just tGas!ng.**

 **FS: Thanks though, that's actually a huge relief ^^**

 **SI: No problEm.. I'd bE.. Willing to listEn if you guys gEt any other piTch problEMs. PlaTonically of course.**

* * *

 **For those who don't check my profile, I'll be on Hiatus until March 31st working on 'The Month of Futa.'**


	25. Chapter 25

**And now we return after the short hiatus.**

* * *

Jeff watched from a distance as Patior lined up his sights on Furlok.

Jeff didn't intervene, he knew he couldn't. This wasn't his timeline, wasn't his place to meddle. Patior fired, his bullet killing the session's space player immediately.

She hadn't finished her role in the session quite yet, and so killing her, Jeff figured, was the moment at which point this time line became truly doomed. He sighed as Patior only now realized what he'd done wrong.

The Heir of Time took out his notepad, jotting down, 'Furlok should God Tier before Patior shoots', along with the other notes he'd also taken.

As a time player, Jeff's primary role in the session was to retrieve information from doomed timelines, timelines where something went wrong, failed, died, and ultimately led to the death of all members in the session.

He wasn't sure how other time players would do this-though he assumed for Seer's it would be the safest, as they could simply gaze into alternate timelines-but for Jeff, he was able to physically enter these alternate timelines and watch what happened.

Well, perhaps it was a flaw to say they were alternate. They could all still happen, all still doom them. They were all possible.

It was his job to guide them through the events to come and prevent the session from being ruins. Happily, doing s also allowed him to practice his powers as he jumped from one point in possible time to another.

Jeff took a breath, floating into the air with his long hood sweeping the ground, his entire body becoming red and swirling like the gears of a clock as he became time, flowing his consciousness from one point in the stream to another. It was always hard for him to focus on where he was going in time when he was physically in it, but he'd managed to get used to it now. He looked around where and when he was.

He was a bit farther from the present. Well, the present relatively speaking. He was on LoLaS, Lurabo's land. She was confronting a horde of monsters approaching from the distance. She drew from her tarot deck, drawing the Devil card. She gasped, dropping to her knees as she began to cough up blood.

Jeff winced, at this, jotting down another note, 'Keep Lurabo on cane attacks, take her to quest bed.' he took another breath, closing his eyes and looking for something in Arvis' future. He passed to the next timeline over, finding the Page of Blood already God Tiered.

Jeff realized he was a bi further down the timeline than he expected, and was peering deeper into an already doomed timeline.

What had doomed it, he wasn't certain, but he knew it had to have something to do with Arvis. In any event, in this current moment, Arvis was already ascended, floating almost a mile in the air, a steadily growing orb of blood red energy pulsating around and from him. Jeff whistled, a bit surprised by this.

At their strongest, Page's became living weapons of their aspect, generating it like a battery; hence it being the most potentially powerful class. Jeff speculated that this 'ultimate attack' that the Page's were capable of had both an offensive and support attack.

What the support attack was for Arvis, the Page of Blood, Jeff couldn't say. But he was getting a pretty good idea of the offensive attack; a wave of connection, bloody forged chains ensnaring everything in the area, countering magic, Arvis' aspect embodied physically; unbreakable even by Brendon's Doom attacks.

Wait… Brendon?

Jeff had to do a double take but yes, Brendon was indeed one of the people being bound in the bleeding chains.

For what reason, Jeff could only speculate it had something to do with the dead body of Java and the similarly mutilated Aspico.

Arvis let out a scream of anger as his blood attack expanded, the chains tightening and pulling monsters, Brendon, and Mutosi to the ground, starting to strangle them to death. Jeff wasn't even sure what to do in this world.

Lacking the proper information, Jeff wondered what the absolute worst possible outcome was, and decided to check what it was. He closed his eyes and prepared for his largest time jump yet.

He passed through time and arrived somewhere cold. Very cold.

Looking around, Jeff could only see ash mixing with snow, an infinity of grey in every direction. He couldn't even see what land he was on. He looked up, and saw nothing but darkness. Even the stars were gone. The one thing he saw that he did recognize was.. Well, himself.

Him a few months older it seemed, his god tier outfit torn in some places and burnt in others. He was floating slightly from the ground, barefoot, his highly upgraded baseball bat-bent to the point of uselessness-in his hand.

"Woah.." Was all Jeff could say. Doomed Jeff turned around, sighing when he saw himself.

"Yeah.. turns out our job is a bit more important than I thought. Only one more important is Furlok, and even she at least has it easier than us."

"Yeah.. I'm starting to see that.." Jeff said as he looked down at the paper full of time changes he needed to make to keep their session from destroying itself.

"Is.. is it even possible to stop all of them?" He asked, "I know I've got time powers, but there's so much.."

Doom Jeff shook his head, "Nope. you can put as much effort into it as you want, but you're never gonna get to every single thing."

"Then.. what should I do?" Jeff asked.

"Well," Doomed Jeff said, looking around the wasteland, "Obviously not what I did. I don't know what all you've got to take care of, but I haven't got much left here. I know the first mistake I made was with the Denizens.

"Everyone taking The Choice was a mistake, but then I looked back at other timelines to try and fix it, and everyone fighting the Denizens was also a mistake. Don't try to turn time backwards. We're the Heir of time, not the Witch. We make slight adjustments.

"We direct the flow, we don't control it. Too many jumps in time will doom you, too few will leave you trapped. There's some happy medium, and from what I saw, most doomed timelines involve us not finding it."

Jeff nodded at this, "I'll do my best to find it."

"See that you do. I'm gonna go. Try and find a timeline that's fine aside from me dying."

"Best of luck to you." Jeff said, closing his eyes to jump back to the present. He assumed he'd not gone back far enough when he landed, as Brendon was dying on the floor.

Then he sighed in annoyance when he realized that this was in fact the present. 'You leave for five seconds..'

* * *

'He isn't a moirale, he's a threat. He isn't a moirale, he's a threat. He isn't a moirale, he's a threat.'

Valtina repeated it inside her mind as she exited through the gate that brought her through to Furlok's land. She looked around at LoMaF, her weapons at the ready. According to Patior, Brendon would be with Furlok at the frog temple.

She could already see the temple in the distance. It was a ways off, but nothing she couldn't handle. No, the thing she was worried about not being able to handle was what would come when she reached the temple.

She knew what she had to do. The prophecy on her land had told her, Patior had told her, and she'd been telling herself that since she received the mention, but the idea of actually doing it was still a frightening one.

'He's a threat,' She reminded herself again, 'and its just a game. He'll be fine.' This thought, while hollow, was what helped her steel her nerves as she ran forward through the markets and into the frog infested wasteland beyond it.

She checked her equipment several times along the way, covering her face with her gardening mask.

Conceal her identity and prevent her breathing in anything noctious. She was going to need it considering what her first attack was intended to be.

* * *

Brendon fired point blank into the Archeon's eyes, blasting the monster into a pile of grist.

"Are you sure you can help?" He called to Furlok, receiving no response from the space player inside the temple.

Brendon grumbled in annoyance, switching from his Super Shotty to his Spade Sparker for the approaching jade Basilisk. It hadn't been working very well recently, as their temporary oscillation to redrom had weakened the hatred lust that fueled the weapon; but he figured his current frustration with her could fuel at least a battle.

Granted, the reason Furlok was unable to help was her attending to her space player tasks; using the machine inside the temple to clone and genetically alter the frogs they had captured. Why she needed to clone specifically frogs for the game to work properly, she wasn't sure, but she supposed it had to be done.

Outside, Brendon's spade sparker sent a flaming chop into the basilisk's metallic skin, melting through it and pinning the creature to the ground.

He kicked the creature in the jaw and swung the axe again, cutting the creature in two; killing it. He panted slightly, wiping the sweat from his forehead as he began to gather the grist.

As he did so, he heard something approaching. He lifted his axe, ready to continue fighting if he needed to. He saw the spherical object careening towards him just barely in time to swing his axe at it, but doing so didn't help him much.

On contact, the axe caused the orb-which was indeed a bomb-burst into a cloud of noxious fumes, plant killer filling the air in several feet around Brendon.

He yelped in shock and pain from the feeling of the poison stinging his skin. He swung his axe wildly, unable to see what was coming for him until he felt it cutting into his hip. Valtina's Sawvel dug into his side leaving a deep wound.

He swung his axe in her direction, not knowing it was her. Valtina let go of the weapon to backup, the blade lodged in his hip bone.

The pain caused Brendon to wheeze, which only made his lungs burn more as they were filled with toxins. Valtina took out her seeder drill weapon, sending it flying into the cloud of poison along with a second plant killer bomb.

The drill hit Brendon's chest, punching through his body and impaling through him. It missed the heart by a bit, but considering the amount of damage, Brendon could tell it probably wasn't necessary to get a direct hit. He dropped his axe and took out his shotgun, firing into vaguely the direction he'd been hit from.

There were two issues with that. The first was that Valtina had already moved out of the way; the second was that the shot firing had ignited the poisonous fumes around him.

The engulfing flame threw Brendon into the air the wind knocked out of him and his body slightly charred. He landed hard, but to Valtina's shock, still stood back to his feet.

Half blind, and unable to feel most of his body, it was a combination of stubborn will and Prince of Doom powers that he didn't fully understand that kept him alive. He saw Valtina approaching through his blurry vision.

In any other state, he'd likely have realized immediately that it was her who'd been attacking him, but in his current, highly rattled state, his mind just defaulted to his mental image of Valtina; a kind, caring figure who'd likely come to help him.

He reached out to her, only to realize fully what was happening when Valtina got close enough to draw her sais, driving them both into Brendon's throat.

Brendon fell to the ground, the remainder of his life starting to fade as the culprit retrieved her weapons from his body, turning to run off from the area.

Furlok came out from the temple of frogs to see what Brendon had been whining about earlier, her eyes widening when she saw the cloud of smoke in the air, and Brendon-or what was left of him after the ambush-on the ground. In the distance, Furlok could see a humanoid figure running away, likely towards the closest gate.

Her vision practically turned red as she took out a splatter bomb, chucking it with all her strength in their direction, then reached down to draw her Brushware set.

The teal blood's mind was set at its default of combat, and she started to run towards the attacker.

The splatter bomb fell short, painting the ground a variety of colors as the attacker continued to run off.

As Furlok ran, her eyes refusing to fill with tears at what may have happened to her kismesis, she felt herself be tripped up and thrown into the dirt. She sprung back up, turning to slash at whoever had attacked her.

Jeff raised his bat, blocking her bladed paintbrushes, "Easy, easy, its me." Jeff said.

Furlok blinked as she fully registered what was happening, "Jeff? When did you get here? And why?"

Jeff shook his head, "explanations later, save Brendon now." "Save.. what do I do?" Furlok questioned, everything else fading away as she listened to the Heir of Time's instructions to save Brendon.

"Have you heard of God Tiering yet?" Jeff questioned. When Furlok shook her head, he continued, "Long story short it's how I got the sweet new outfit," He said, indicating to his Heir of Time outfit, "Plus it makes using your powers way easier, and also makes you semi-immortal. It'll save him."

"Whatever, how do I get Brendon to do it?" Furlok questioned. "Quest bed," Jeff said, "There's a stone bed for all of us, each with our symbol on it. If you die on it, you come back to life as a God Tier.

"Brendon's got the dying part mostly taken care of, he's hanging on by a non-existent thread, Valtina didn't do a great double tap on him. Well, actually an explosion and double throat stab is probably a great double tap, but Brendon's Prince of Doom energy is basically built for soaking stuff like that up."

"Valtina did this?!" Furlok questioned.

"Revenge later," Jeff said, pulling up a picture of the spiky skull like face that symbolized the Doom aspect, "Go to Brendon's land, find the bed with this mark on it, and put him on it. It might take awhile, but between Brendon's powers and mine, you should have just enough time if you hurry like a bat out of hell."

Furlok nodded, "Right." She hurried over to Brendon, grunting as she attempted several times to lift him before she got the better idea.

She took out a captchalogue card and sketching Brendon's currently damaged body, causing him to be absorbed into her Sketch Modus. He was basically in stasis now, and could be carried without any weight.

"Oh, that's actually pretty clever, won't even need my powers for that." Jeff said as Furlok took off in search of the gate to Brendon's land.

She'd worry about Jeff and Valtina and whatever else was going wrong when she was sure she wasn't going to need to erase Brendon's name from her spade quadrant.


	26. Chapter 26

Mutosi looked over her weaponry and her troops.

Her ability to control the minds of the consorts had grown far greater than she'd thought would be possible. At a certain point, she became aware of the fact that it wasn't just her natural bronze blood animal control, this was something else, something more powerful.

It wasn't just their minds she was controlling anymore; she was bending their actual willpower, their sense of faith and belief, to her will, forcing their minds to submit to her mental control.

She wasn't sure where this secondary controlling power had come from, but she couldn't complain. As much as she hated Risura, she had to admit that the moronic, jade blooded femboy had quite a lot of physical power.

And that was before the game had started. Mutosi was highly driven sure, but she wasn't dumb enough to convince herself that she was the only one who's powers would have increased in intensity since the beginning of the game.

His physical strength, his faith to that bullshit probability and knowledge based religion, and his ability to piss her off would have all likely grown quite a lot.

That gave Mutosi an idea though… her new powers seemed to be based around faith. She could turn a target's devotion to what they believed against them, weakening them mentally. If Risura was still just as faithful to that book and its teachings..

She could use that faith to poison him from the inside. Between that, her miniature army of of camel folk, and her own natural combat power, she was sure she'd be able to defeat Risura, wipe him out of the game entirely.

She'd found the gate leading to his land, and the only reason she'd not yet gone on the war path is that she wanted to alchemize her broom further to make sure it was the strongest it could possibly be. At least, she told herself that's why she was stalling.

She refused to admit to herself even in principle that she might end up regretting what she was about to do.

No, of course she wouldn't regret it. She wouldn't care when he was gone. She'd be happier even. She took a breath, looking over her poison lined, sturdy, sandstone, slightly enchanted broom.

Adding anything else at this point would have just been blatant stalling, and would risk worsening the quality of the weapon. It was to the point of being able to one shot a mini-boss if she landed the shot right. She stepped through the gate, and worried she'd just gone blind.

The bright light of her land vanishing into the dark shadows of Risura's was a massive contrast. It took several moments for her eyes to adjust enough for her to be able to even remotely see. Even when she could see, there wasn't much there to see. Dark, dingy terrain with bizzare, unsettling laughter in the distance. Mutosi called her army in after her, and started her war march after Risura.

She wasn't sure how long it would take her to find him, but with this many soldiers, she was bound to at some point.

* * *

Patior had been on his way to his quest bed when his mind finished connecting the dots.

It was a combination of his Mind aspect abilities-one in specific which he had named the Process ability, which allowed him to think through the situation and arrive at the proper conclusion with almost premonition-like accuracy.

It was his first time using the ability to its fullest extend. He would be more proud of himself if the power hadn't revealed Mutosi's plot to attack Risura.

He supposed he couldn't take all the credit for it. Much as he hated to admit it, part of it had come from Aspico. He'd been reading her speculations on the class and aspects of each member of the session. She'd posted her ideas of each member of the session in a public chat so everyone could see it, but most people hadn't paid it much heed so far.

And the moment he saw one idea that she had for Mutosi, everything fell into place. The Witch of Hope, one who actively manipulates and breaks the rules of belief and will power. If that was her power, and she'd been unknowingly cultivating it the entire time, she wouldn't just be heading to fight Risura, she'd be on her way with a fucking gang, perhaps even an entire army.

This went well beyond blackrom flirting now. Attempting to kill your kismesis was common sure, but if that was all this was than it was one fucking hell of an attempt. Patior couldn't take the chance.

If a member of his team got killed, even by someone on his team, it would break the whole system down. He supposed it was partially his fault, as he'd gone on at length explaining to Java and Valtina that it was alright to kill the members of the hero team.

He supressed a bit of bitter laughter at the realization that he'd probably unknowingly fulfilled the function of his team name.

He could see his quest bed now. It was at the top of a metallic structure, the bars just as rusted from the constant rain as everything else on LoRaR, so if he climbed up it, he ran the risk of dying on his way up from the whole structure coming down.

He paused at the bottom of the structure and took out his phone, figuring he should send someone to stop or slow down Mutosi to buy him some time. The only people on were Dustine and Lurabo.

 **CD: How are things going on your land? Mine's only getting more difficult.**

 **SI: Same, but the tarot cards and magic crook are helping, lol. Plus my telekinesis is getting better as well.**

 **CD: Hey, you're not typing with your quirk, what's that about?**

 **SI: My computer has an autocorrect on it. Usually I go through each word and manually change it back to fit my quirk, but I just don't even feel like bothering right now. Anyway, what's your land even like? You haven't said anything about it yet.**

 **CD: Well.. its just kind of boring honestly. Didn't think you'd want to hear about it. So, found the big snake monster you told us about earlier?**

 **SI: The Denizen? No, no, that's some late game stuff. Not sure when we'll find it. But seriously, what's your land like? You listened to me go on about the ladders and lights in my land, I figured you'd like to talk about your land, if only to blow off a little steam. I figure a combat heavy game like this would be a huge stress for someone like you.**

 **CD: Like..me?**

 **SI: Oh I didn't mean anything by it, it's just that you're always so calm and laid back, and this game kind of demands you keep attention and remain focused on the task at hand, and a lot of the time it's combat. Didn't think that'd be your thing.**

 **CD: Oh.. right..**

 **SI: Sorry if I offended you..**

 **CD: No, it isn't that at all, I just.. Okay, can you promise not to tell this to anyone else?**

 **SI: Um.. yeah, you and Aspico are the only people who I told my.. 'ashenyay ushcray' (got something to tell you about that later though), I can return the favor.**

 **CD: Alright.. Well.. I've actually been loving this game.**

 **SI: Oh. That doesn't seem bad, is your land just not as intense as ours?**

 **CD: If anything I'd say its probably more intense. I just.. Really like it. Its an endless battle royale through a near endless swamp where everything that isn't me wants to kill me, and it's the first chance to blow off steam I've had in a long time. I know it never seemed like it back then, I went out of my way to make sure that it didn't, but I wasn't as calm before the game as I acted. I was super stressed out like twenty-four seven, I was just afraid that if anyone found out about it, they wouldn't like me. I get angry, intense, maybe even too angry and intense, but I got really good at bottling it up so i could talk to you guys.**

 **SI: Oh wow.. I.. I never knew that.. I'm glad you don't have to anymore though, and for what it's worth, it was never your 'chillness' that I liked, it was just the natural nice and even smart things you say and do. Plus the idea of you being feisty is actually pretty cute XP EE: Oi, stop palerom flirting with the enemy.**

 **CD: I wasn't p-**

 **EE: I don't care what you think you were doing, we've got a problem. Mutosi somehow racked up a fucking army and is about to kill Risura, I'm sending you a map to a gate that'll take you to his land, get there and get him out of it. I'm gonna go think of a way out of this.**

 **CD: Oh fuck, uh sorry Lurabo, gotta go before everything gets pear-shaped.**

 **SI: Hurry! We can talk when lives aren't on the line!**

 **[All members have signed off]**

* * *

Risura, or at least his body, was still laughing.

He'd long since forgotten what had been so funny, but it didn't matter anymore, laughing was just what he was doing now. Maybe he'd stop, maybe he wouldn't. Maybe he'd just laugh until his lungs gave out and he died.

That was a hilarious thought. No, wait, was it? Where was he? He'd lost track. He was still walking through the tall grass, the dark, shadowy mist coming off of his body causing the plant life around him to rot away like he was a walking contagion.

Maybe he was. Who knows. He could feel the voices inside his head, all of them requesting different things from him.

'Hhbl'nm kcmfac, Q kon erwz bvej, eqv! Vc, wxvp, qb kap akbpwnd. Lkc avoryz abwli eqv, bveor ywczd yr owustevjo kcmfac. Zcb, rra, NCV!' 'B chw dbtr aqaj votrjd yoy do. Qaef fwkm uz ck cbgoc. Sb'el nrrb mhlv w cbgoc. Pobek ck ihcr do xpaf, cnfxd ax drkt bb, pobek ck hbls do. Tx'ls bdlp toni, tx'ls bdlp toni xel! Aqav'el huh yx dljz xm oba bbxt!' 'Rdac rws ccwt? fck's ljiiwb, shnma aaz se? xc comn se'az wlu bkiwb po mda aazj't fz? Jo, wj se jman'c, wqt cca occarb vne. Lvj yxp dejm et? R xwn qzwr ro, oen dp, snioe ro. Shnma aaz se pjenp? Rdy jma wn bkiwb wnhrdeaz?'

Risura clawed at his forehead, trying to stop laughing, at least long enough to figure out what he was hearing. Was he hearing something? Yes, yes he was hearing something.

Someone was coming. Something was coming towards him, he could hear them approaching through the grass.

He looked around, trying to focus his eyes so he could see where they where they were hiding.

They were not actually hiding at all in fact so much as charging at him with all the subtlety of a zerg rush, it was just that the voices within his skull were fraying his senses to the point of being unable to notice something as obvious as the camel army with Mutosi at its head charging towards him.

Mutosi…

Risura could remember her through the haze clouding his mind. His hatred of her acted as a single flickering light of recollection in the empty darkness gumming up the gears of him mind.

He turned fully to face her army, fists up to attack whenever she approached.

Mutosi opened her mouth to talk, figuring it was only polite to share a few words before her army steamrolled him, but before she could, Risura started talking, his voice a series of unintelligible noises, sounding like several voices all looping over each other at once.

" _ziefp pjluc fjvkn ucyyv htwgp ogqyk wtkuj iidrc aixhm gidag jsgqs etqul lhfys tsrre gklip zyyxu exrdy ohwwb tokxi afthw wtocn vyzeu xpuvr dbpnq xhsqq cxxty qjxfu itmdi odlok yucca rlkwy iozom dhmvs jldom uiiyp cviue bubkj fixzl rsami qkwnj vvvhz mrxxd clkvc yeimq muzzv emzta fhdgi zchrb klbvj jkeid cvbcb hwaoc gewpm bshaf aijil pbxig omctt rgmwa xdzga bvbjn xmjgb slssq litof etfky phoid diedf jarlm oujev shzxk jrejg hrjoh vdimy crhrv jjuhd ylwub aztup lhmjc_ "

And with that, Risura charged.

* * *

 **ashenyay ushcray: pig latin, ashen crush.**

 **Vigenere Cipher: MADNESS, HATRED, FEAR.**

 **Enigma 1**


	27. Chapter 27

Brendon was barely conscious as Furlok placed him down on the stone bed.

Everything burned, inside and out, and his will to even fight off his own death was weakening as well from the mental image of Valtina-the girl he'd been ready to ask to be moirales-attempting to kill him.

He didn't even know where he was, only that he was laying on stone. Furlok had taken him out of her Sketch modus when she found his quest bed, getting directions from some of the ghostly consorts on his land.

Now that he was on the bed that Jeff had confirmed would return him to full health when he died, she was actually getting a bit annoyed that he still wasn't dead. His powers had an internal life support system, not healing him so much as just keeping him alive despite the damage to his body.

The only thing Furlok could think to do was.. Finished the job. She drew her Brushware, slashing at his heart to push him passed the brink of death. His powers were still new to him, and couldn't keep going any longer without training. They shut down; and so did Brendon's entire body.

There was silence, no sounds other than the skittering of monsters across the fleshy ground as they approached Furlok and the quest bed.

There was a single, horrible moment where Furlok wondered if Jeff had been wrong, and she'd just killed her kismesis permanently. Thankfully Brendon ascended just ast the teal blood's eyes began to water.

She dried her eyes quickly, not wanting him to see her with anything approximating tears in her eyes when he came back down. Brendon's body was no longer damaged, completely healed. Then Furlok saw what Brendon was now wearing, and suddenly her eyes started watering for a completely different reason.

With no idea what was going on, Brendon wasn't sure why Furlok was doubled over laughing on the ground in front of him, until he looked down and saw his god tier outfit. The Prince class outfit had a cape with a hood, and a shirt with its aspect symbol on it.

By itself, that was fine. Less fine were the fingerless gloves that went up to his elbows, even less fine were the shorts that stopped just above his knees, baggy like a pair of what Brendon believed were called 'bloomers', leaving the majority of his legs on display.

And while again this could be tolerated-Brendon didn't see much wrong with his legs-the high heels were the deal breaker. High heels had been originally made for men, sure, but that time was long ago and Brendon didn't much care for the look.

The entire outfit was two shades of dark green, the symbol on his chest a jet black, semi spiked half skull; the Doom symbol. Brendon thought that the outfit would be so much better if the heels were replaced with boots, the shorts with almost anything.

No sooner had he thought this did the outfit shift to match what he was picturing, the heels vanishing into a pair of boots, the bloomers becoming a respectable pair of pants. Furlok seemed disappointed by this, her ruckus laughter dying down.

"No, change it back, I didn't get any pictures." Furlok demanded.

Brendon rolled his eyes, "Take a picture of this." he said, using his wallet modus to take the entire outfit off all at once, storing it in an inventory card.

He placed it and the Boxcar Buffer into an alchemizer, combining the two; boosting the stats of the outfit and giving it a more mafioso look like keeping the Doom aspect look. This done, he equipped the outfit, dubbed the Don of Doom's Royal Robes.

Furlok had indeed taken several pictures of Brendon's naked form while he'd been occupied with this, but Brendon suspected these were more for her own personal use.

"Alright, I'm changed, and not dead, what's happening and what now?" He asked.

"Valtina iced you," Furlok said, "I say our next course of action is returning the favor." Furlok said with a smirk. Whatever revenge they had planned was put on hold by the small army of monsters that Furlok's mad dash to Brendon's quest bed had drawn.

Brendon took out his shot gun and took aim, preparing to see what a god tier prince of doom could do. He fired into the hoard of monsters, his aspect increasing the power of the attack. A cluster of imps were all killed in a single shot, the ogre weakened nearly to the point of death already.

Prince is the Destroyer, Brendon recalled reading on Aspico's chat page, They destroy their aspect. Doom is the aspect of destruction, devastation, death, sacrifice, and rules.

'Prince of Doom,' Brendon thought as he switched to his axe, charging the monsters, 'Destroyer of destruction and breaker of rules.'

These monsters were certainly destructive, and it seemed that was the only justification his powers needed to wipe the them off the face of the planet. But even as he started to carve through the beasts savagely, he was already thinking of how else his powers could be used.

'Breaker of rules,' 'destroyer of sacrifice.'

Each of those spirits in the towns on LoFaM, all of them had sacrificed themselves, given their lives to fight the denizen, becoming the spirits that now populated the land.

Maybe.. Maybe there was something he could do about that…

* * *

"So you've just been adventuring across this place all this time?" Java asked.

She and Arvis had been exploring LoBaV. She'd tried to help him fight whenever monsters appeared to fight them, but she couldn't help but notice that even his imps were stronger than all the monsters on her own.

Every threat on Arrvis' land seemed stronger and more dangerous than anything Java had had to deal with. If she didn't have her new god tier flight and Breath powers, she was pretty sure she'd be useless.

Arvis on the other hand was hook-shotting around the place, cutting through monsters with his hook swords and barely breaking a sweat. And all without any powers no less. Java several times almost forgot what she was there to do, and whenever she did it, taking a little bit of Arvis' natural freedom and skill with each sudden breath, she felt guilty.

She wondered why she had to be the one who'd come into the game with the powers to steal the freedom from others; especially when she couldn't actually do anything with it afterwards.

She supposed in passing that she might be thinking of her powers in the wrong way, but she didn't have any time to think about it. She had to focus on the task a hand: weakening the enemy, and whether she liked it or not, Arvis was the enemy right now.

Arvis nodded,"Yeah, the place is pretty intense. Can't even go into the towns without the consorts chasing you out of the place." He explained.

Java wondered on this, "Are you sure?" She asked.

"What do you mean?" Arvis asked her.

"Well, on my land, the consorts weren't enemies or anything, they needed help from me. Maybe yours need help in some way to."

Arvis chuckled at this, "Only thing they need is a kick in the ass. They hate everything, me included." He paused, "Well, not hate so much. When I went in the first time, it seemed more like everyone was afraid of everyone else. They didn't trust each other, and they weren't willing to risk giving me a chance. Just don't know how to handle people I guess."

Java snorted, "Well then you're the perfect person to help them!"

"What do you mean?" Arvis asked, not sure what she meant.

"Before the game you were like, the life of the party. We were only, what, your third friend group? Of six? You could connections with people who no one else could, and I guess that makes sense since your a Blood player.

"I read Aspico's chart of the aspects, and the Blood aspect is supposed to have a lot to do with connecting to others. My land's challenge had a lot to do with flight and freedom, Breath player stuff.

"Your land is probably just waiting for you to put those people meeting skills to good use and get all the consorts to trust each other again. Maybe that's what'll let you deal with the Denizen, not sure, Lurabo wasn't exactly specific about what they were."

Java mentally kicked herself, trying to make herself stop talking. She was on an infiltration mission to drain Arvis of his power, not an inspiration mission to power him up. She couldn't help herself though, she didn't like being a spy, Rogue or not, she just wanted to help Arvis, not hurt him.

But… if she ended up ruining the session for everyone because she didn't have the nerve to do what needed to be done, it'd be worse than anything she was doing to Arvis right now. He'd forgive her when it was over, he had to, he would understand what she was doing.

She took a breath, taking in more of Arvis' freedom with her as she did, and kept going. Arvis didn't notice the faint blue mist leaving his body and going to Java, too deep in thought about what she had said to him.

It'd been so long in the game now that Arvis had completely forgotten all the stories he'd told her and the others about his 'friends', an army of friends that only existed in his mind so he could tell the few that actually existed he was more important than he actually was.

For a split second, he considered telling the truth about it. All the time he'd spent alone, and now the closeness with a girl as wonderful as Java, had him feeling that constantly avoiding other people like he'd been doing up to now wasn't the right way to go about his life. She was right, he was supposed to be the session's Blood player after all.

But, as the blue mists of his personal liberation left his body, whatever confidence he'd built up over the course of his journey left as well, leaving him too frightened of how she and the others would react to learning of his lies.

He shuddered, not knowing why. Java did, and she coughed, casting the blue smoke to the winds around them, losing it forever.

"Maybe.. I did know a lot of antisocial people before the game started," Arvis said, digging further into his former lies, "Weren't easy, but I got around it and got pretty good with them. But.. I'm not sure it'll work here."

"Why?" Java asked, though she was growing retroactively glad that he wasn't going to try entering the towns, not wanting him to get inside only to learn that she'd stolen all of his thunder.

"Because.. I.. don't think I could really get into the whole connecting and making new friends things right now," Arvis said, "I mean, I lost a *lot* of friends when this game started and the world ended, couldn't save any of them, and I'm pretty torn up about that."

"Oh, yeah that makes sense." Java said.

If she were thinking more deeply about it she'd have been able to notice how not torn up about it Arvis sounded, but she was more focused on her mission now, not wanting to let herself slow down and potentially give up on the mission too soon.

* * *

Patior was quite fond of the outfit he'd received through his ascension.

It was a fairly simple, robe like outfit with a hood, its color scheme a bluish green. Perhaps it was just the indigo blue wings that he'd grown during the ascension that he was fond of, and the power of flight that it brought.

Perhaps it was just the extra powers his mind had gotten.

As a god tier Mage of Mind, his focus and logical reasoning had been sharpened. At least, he told themself they had been to keep himself on track.

His Process ability made it so obvious that no matter if Valtina was seen in the act or not, Furlok would attack someone on his team out of revenge. He flew through the water raining down on him towards the gate to Valtina's land. It made the most sense to start there.

He took a position a ways away from the gate that Valtina had come through, taking aim with his sniper rifle.

If anyone else came through, it would only take him one shot to stop them. He was patient, and waited diligently. He didn't think much about anything during this time, worried he would begin thinking illogically and have second thoughts about what he was doing.

He needed to focus. He'd Already started to second guess his previous decisions leading up to this point, emotions starting to gum up the works of his logical decisions.

He refused to believe that he'd been wrong up to this point. He was the class of active knowledge gathering, and the aspect of mental power. He was capable of being wrong. Just as his willpower began to break though, he saw the flash form the gate as someone came through.

Sure enough, it was Furlok.

Patior fired immediately, the bullet sailing through the air. It was a combination of teal blooded troll's natural senses and her space player nature that allowed Furlok to turn around and raise her hand to catch the bullet. It was entirely Thief of Space powers that saved her life however.

The moment the bullet reached her skin, it stopped dead and fell straight down, all of its momentum and speed gone, robbed by Furlok.

Patior's eyes widen as he realized he'd been foolish to not factor in her having build up powers of her own. This was the most powerful successful use of her class and aspect powers that she'd been able to muster this far, and Furlok decided to use the increase in velocity she'd just gained.

She kicked off the ground, rocketing at exactly the same speed of the sniper bullet, appearing in front of Patior and slamming her fist into his jaw with just under it.

She held back only slightly, not wanting to actually kill him.

The sniper force punch sent Patior several feet back, unconscious. Furlok shook the heat off of her hand, then picked the indigo blood up from the ground and threw him into the nearest gate, returning him to his own land.

Brendon came over to her quickly, having discovered the god tier flight power. It made the travel much easier. "What was that?" Brendon asked."

"Don't worry about it," Furlok said, "We need to find your moirale and kill her. Then you two can have sloppy palerom makeouts or whatever it is that Moirales do." She said, Brendon rolling his eyes to hide his blushing.

He wanted to try talking to Valtina rather than just off her like Furlok was saying, but if they could find her quest bed, they would definitely have to kill her; for entirely wholesome reasons though.


	28. Chapter 28

Valtina hadn't received any word from Patior on what to do next.

Without direct instruction on what to do, Valtina more or less shut down, stumbling through the healed and still ruined lands of LoGaR as the memories of what she'd done cycled through her mind.

She knew that she had to do it, or at least she thought she knew she had to do it.

But the doubt, the fear that she'd done the wrong thing and cruelly cut down someone who didn't deserve it, someone for whom she held pale feelings.. It almost brought her to tears.

What did bring her over into the land of sobbing was when she decided to check old messages she'd never gotten around to, and found the post Aspico had put up explaining the different classes. She reached the destroyer class, seeing that the bard was one who destroyed with their aspect.

This confused Valtina, as it made her wonder what the Prince did if not destroy with their aspect. Scrolling down, her heart sank as she saw that the prince was described as a destroyer of their aspect, one who killed their aspect.

If Brendon was the Prince of Doom..

Valtina broke down, the full implications of what she'd done hitting her like a wrecking ball. She dropped to her knees, sobbing into the dirt. She wasn't sure how long she wallowed there before she heard someone approaching.

She wasn't surprised by who had come for her. Furlok was undoubtedly out for revenge for what she'd done to the teal blood's kismesis.

Furlok stopped in front of Valtina, her bladed paintbrushes in hand as she looked over the utter wreck on a human in front of her. She looked her in the eyes, saying, "you know why I'm here, don't you?"

Valtina reached up, attempting to dry her eyes; though it did nothing, and nodded, "Y-yes.. I do."

"Are you gonna try and fight it?" Furlok questioned.

Valtina shook her head, lowering her head to give Furlok a clean shot. She knew that she deserved what was coming.

"On your feet honey, I don't care whether you think so or not, everyone deserves to die with dignity."

Her voice sounded almost… amused. Valtina wasn't sure why this could possibly be at first, eventually deciding it was probably some kind of coping mechanism to deal with Brendon's death.

Valtina got up from the dirt, Furlok marching her across her land out of the ruined wasteland area and into one of the healthy plant-life territories that she'd already healed.

There, she had the human sit down on an object that Valtina had found already, but never known what to do with. It was a stone bed, a symbol depicting three blades of grass etched into it.

Valtina laid down on the stone slab. Closing her eyes to brace herself for her death.

"Eyes open honey, I'm not letting you chicken out of this." Furlok said, her amusement sounding borderline on the verge of laughter at this point.

Valtina wondered if her grief had actually driven Furlok mad, but decided it wasn't her place to ask. She opened her eyes, which then went wide as she saw something that was-as far as she currently understood-impossible.

Brendon was standing at the foot of the stone bed, dressed in an odd, dark green, regal looking mafia suit. Before Valtina could get the first sound of the question 'what?' out of her mouth, Brendon's shotgun blasted into her chest and throat, killing her almost instantly.

The force of the super shotty could probably blast trees apart if pressed.

There was a few seconds of silence-during which Brendon looked away from the grisly remains of the girl he'd just fired at-and then the quest bed began to work its magic.

Valtina rose from the bed, her body fully restored to normal, and her outfit changed to that of her classpect; the long dress and hood of a Sylph, with the greys and light green symbol of the life aspect.

She landed in a sitting position on her quest bed, blinking as her mind tried to process what was happening.

"There, now we're even." Brendon said, approaching the now ascended Sylph of Life and pulling her into an affectionate hug, "Now, can you explain why the fuck you tried to kill me? I don't believe for a second it was your idea, so just explain it to me, and we can put this behind us, alright?" Valtina was a bit shell shocked, both by Brendon being alive, and by herself being alive.

Furlok, having gotten her laughter out from Valtina's expression out already, rolled her eyes and said, "Hug and make up already, the whole pale quadrant makes me wretch and the less time I have to spend in its presence the better."

* * *

Mutosi felt that Risura had to be cheating.

There was no chance that he'd just naturally gotten this powerful by himself. She'd known something was wrong when she saw the bright white light leaving his eyes and the black vapor rising from his skin; which had become darker than normal.

She had no knowledge of the beings beyond the veil, and couldn't even take them into the equation as she battled Grimdark Risura.

The camel consorts, all bent to Mutosi's will, charged the jade blooded troll endlessly, each and every one of them getting sent flying out of the area with a single punch from the possessed femboy.

He tried to speak, likely to hurl threats and insults at mutosi, but all of it came out as unintelligible, hellishly warped voices that looped over each other and may have even been being heard in reverse after it left Risura's mouth.

Swords and spears passed through Risura's body, while his fists became solid just in time to collide with the face's of Mutosi's minions.

Every so often he would blink out of existence, invisible for a few seconds; which was always enough time for him to slip passed another battalion of Mutosi's mind slaves and get closer to the brown blood.

She was growing afraid of this, and realized more drastic measures were going to be needed. She drew her weaponized broom, sending the camel consort minions into berserk mode around the possessed target.

The camels let out mad war cries as they went into a frenzy, hurling themselves and weapons at the jade blood.

The consorts actually seemed to be doing better on frantic autopilot than they had with Mutosi's direct instructions. She facepalmed at the realization and acceptance of her utter lack of tactical strategy.

There was one plan she could she execute properly: flood. The consorts were practically dogpiling Risura, more opf the vapor leaking off of Risura as his body excerted itself harder to fight them off.

A sword cut into his side, a spear penetrating his leg, and an arrow hitting his shoulder. He let out a hellish roar, refusing to slow down or be stopped by the crowd of consorts. He struck the ground, a wave of void energy sending the consorts around him flying away in every direction.

He jumped, cracking the ground beneath him even further as he did, launching himself at Mutosi. The brown blood was ready for this though, already in position to swing her broom.

It collided with his head, knocking him to the side. His face was cut up from the impact, an acidic venom causing the skin on his body to burn away further. Smutosi smirked, holding her broom aloft and sending a bolt of golden energy at Risura's temporarily prone body.

It burned into him painfully, the force of the hope more than even the Horrorterrors could block out. Risura's body was left covered in burns from the attack. He let out another wail, this one loud and so warped it causes Mutosi physical pain. He leaped at her again, driving his fist into her gut.

The impact sent her flying off of the wheeled platform she'd had her consorts bring her in on. She tumbled across the ground, getting herself covered in cuts and scraped as she rolled over the ground.

The wind had been knocked out of her and the force of the void had damaged her internally more than she'd been expecting. Risura came down on top of her, getting himself cut into by Mutosi's broom as she rose it to protect herself.

One of the camel consorts grabbed him by the shoulders before he could attack Mutosi again, throwing him to the ground so the consorts could once again swarm him.

The damage was coming faster than the Horror-Terrors could heal it, and they were beginning to think they should just cut their losses and allow the jade blood to die so they could create a temporary void avatar.

Mutosi's hope bending was primarily responsible for his growing weaker, his own faith in his religion, and the Horror-Terror's faith in themselves, steadily burning them away from the inside out.

"You are not a terrible fighter," Mutosi admitted to Risura as he was beaten to a jade pulp on the ground, "but the power of hope and the will to break the rules is stronger than anything and everything you learned in that stupid book of yours, and far greater than whatever you've learned since this game started."

Risura's response was illegible, but sounded at least like he was genuinely trying to say something. "SCCSSCCS SCCCSCSC SCCSSSCC SCCSCSCC SSCSSSSS SCCCCSSC SCCSCCCC SCCCSCSC SSCSCCSS SSCSSSSS SCCSSCSC SCCCSCCS SCCSCSSC SCCSCCSS SSCSSSSS SCCSSSCS SCCSCSSC SCCCSCSS SCCSSSCC SCCSCSSS."

"Be that as it may," Mutosi said, pretending to understand what the fuck had just been said to her, "It's unbecoming of any troll to die like a savage. I'll give you this one chance to forfeit your bullshit, admit you've been wrong from our first argument, and I'll call them off."

"SCCSSCCS SCCCSCSC SCCSSSCC SCCSCSCC SSCSSSSS SCCCCSSC SCCSCCCC SCCCSCSC SSCSCCSS SSCSSSSS SCCSSCSC SCCCSCCS SCCSCSSC SCCSCCSS SSCSSSSS SCCSSSCS SCCSCSSC SCCCSCSS SCCSSSCC SCCSCSSS." Risura repeated.

Mutosi sighed, "Such a shame. You aren't bad looking," She admitted, "You'd have been lovely to keep around, just like these mindless camels." She said, ordering them to hold Risura down. Risura struggled and roared, hissing and spitting and clawing.

His power had been worn thin by the fighting and damage. More to the point, his mind had become too unfocused for the Horrorterrors to make the body use its void powers to escape. He was trapped. Mutosi approached him, gripping her broom weapon firmly. She tried to keep her mind focused.

'It has to be done,' She told herself, 'he'll hold us back if I don't do this.' She said, coming to a stop in front of him., she raised her broom to strike him down, a strike right through the throat, quick, clean, and done with.

But she hesitated.

She wasn't sure why she'd hesitated, but she did. She'd thought about doing this a thousand times, but actually doing it, actually ending another troll's life, ending Risura's…

Mutosi's train of thought was cut off by a mace colliding with the side of her head. Risura's fighting and Mutosi's hesitation had bought Dustine enough time to get through the gate and across LoDaL to where they'd been fighting.

The powerful strike to Mutosi's head had, if only for a moment, cut the hope bending powers out. That moment was all Risura needed to surge free and throw the camels holding him down, throwing them away. He roared at the dazed and confused consorts, then turned to Dustine.

His mind tried to recall who he was looking at. He remembered the face he was looking at, but the Horrorterrors had put such a shadow over his mind that it was difficult to tell for sure what he was watching.

As the Horrorterrors decided to treat the human as a threat and force Risura to eliminate them, Mutosi took care of it first. Mutosi's hope infused bladed broom pierced through his chest, cutting into him lethally.

Mutosi hadn't even been aware that it was Dustine she was attacking. Her vision was still blurred with the impact to her head, and her mind wasn't exactly firing on all cylinders now that it was concussed.

Seeing Dustine gasp in pain, legs shaking from the pain as Mutosi withdrew the weapon lit up Risura's memory of what was happening, letting him use Dustine as an anchor to link him back to who he was. Risura pushed forward, grabbing Dustine as he slumped, not letting him hit the ground.

Seeing that Risura was on his feet, Mutosi reflexively swung to hit him upside the head, but her broom hit nothing but air as Risura ran directly through her. Risura's mind was now on one focus: saving Dustine.

The Horrorterrors tried to redirect his focus, to make him leave the wounded human on the ground and focus on the fight, but as far as Risura was concerned the fight was over now.

He wasn't fully back to normal, but he was focused on what he wanted to be focused at least, less grimdark and ore just slightly mad; with a little extra knowledge inside of his mind brought by the presence of the beasts within his skull.

They knew more about the world than Risura had, and having that knowledge let Risura know what to do. He charged through the gate he found at the edge of one of the towns, tripping and falling into the muck of LoMaW.

Risura grumbled in annoyance, getting back up to his feet and charging through the mud and grime of Dustine's land, looking for the stone quest bed. Dustine had gotten too still for Risura's comfort as he carried him up a hill of grime onto one of the town's many moats.

The toad guard glared at Risura, then blinked in confusion as Risura ran right through him, passing by like a ghost. He charged through the town, leaving tracks of grime until he found the center of it; finding Dustine's guest bed.

He dropped the human's half-dead body onto it, collapsing on the ground next to it. The voices of the Horrorterrors were still sounding off in his head as Dustine ascended.

He breathed a sigh of relief as he closed his eyes to get a little rest. Or perhaps he'd just passed out, hard to say.

* * *

 **C: 1**

 **S: 0**


	29. Chapter 29

Java and Arvis were still traveling LoBaV.

They'd still not managed to go into any of the towns. It had been getting windier lately, much windier, almost to the point of a storm. Java wouldn't have noticed, but there wasn't anything else to notice.

Arvis had been getting quieter and quieter over the course of showing Java around his land, not knowing that he was steadily losing more and more of his freedom and power as it was siphoned off.

He'd stopped making any comments about the things he showed her, his mind becoming more of an empty shell as he lost any freedom to think or feel, becoming more and more of a walking husk.

By the end of the previous day, it had gotten to the point where whenever monsters appeared, either Java would have to fight it herself or Arvis' sprite would have to appear to defend him.

It seemed Java's tampering with his freedom had gotten so bad that the game technically considered him to be incapacitated despite him still being conscious and not physically damaged in any way.

Whenever Strikersprite appeared to cut up a powerful ogre or basilisk, he would always linger after he had finished killing the monster, glaring at Java.

She could only assume that the sprite could recognize that Arvis' current state was her fault, and that he viewed her as a threat, but couldn't attack her because she was also a fellow player and it was against the rules for the sprites to intervene in such a way.

Every time Strikersprite stared her down, Java felt even more guilty for what she was doing to Arvis. She had to keep telling herself that it was for the good of the session, that she had to do it, that it'd be selfish for her to stop just because she didn't personally like it.

"It'll be fine,' She thought to herself as they continued up the red stone mountain they'd started climbing before Arvis had been fully bled dry of his freedom.

The winds were howling even harder now, almost strong enough to blow them off of the cliffs with each stumbled they made.

Java couldn't even remember what Arvis had been planning to show him up here, but supposed that it hardly mattered at this point. Java inhaled again, drawing the last of the breath out of Arvis. He shuddered, letting out a subtle whimper as he felt something leaving him.

He stopped climbing, no longer having any free will at all, leaving him unable to even climb of his own volition. Java knew that now would be the best time to finish the job. One strong brass knuckle strike to the side of the head would finish him off.

But Java wanted to put this off as long as she could, and decided to make it to the top of the mountain before she did the deed.

Naturally she could have just flown them up, but it would buy her more time if she went by foot, and she wanted to stall; unsure she had it in her to finish the task Patior had assigned to her.

* * *

Jeff had gotten an idea.

He'd been chatting with the many sprites that the players had entered the session with. Dustine's clown faced sprite did nothing but cackle and sing terrile music.

The lusus based sprites that the trolls had brought in were too busy watching their troll companions to say much, wanting to make sure nothing too bad happened to them. Valtina's garden sprite was either incapable of speech or simply didn't care to.

Java's pilotsprite was actually happen to chat up with the Heir of Time, but the conversation quickly turned awkward when he mentioned that his time shenanigans had let him see just how 'close' Pilotsprite had gotten to Java.

Strikersprite kept coming and going from the little section of land on Skaia-the planet at the center of the game session's solar system and final territory for the players-as Arvis presumably got into trouble repeatedly.

Jeff wasn't sure what was going wrong with him, but it evidently wasn't so bad that his sprite felt the need to ask Jeff for help. Droobarsprite was just consistantly grumbling and annoyed with life in general, attempting once or twice to get a game going to waste some time, but do to the two components within him, unable to decide whether he wanted to play poker or pool.

And then he spoke with his sprite.

Consort sprite had the DNA within it of all four kinds of consort. He wondered why they had wandered into his sprite, and decided to ask him-them-it. The multi-species sprite seem confused by the question though.

"We didn't wander in by accident," The sprite said, its voice several voices all layering over each other as the four different components of the sprite attempted to speak at once, "You explained to us why we needed to go into the sprite, and brought us into it." Jeff tilted his head in confusion at this explanation, and then it slowly clicked into place in his mind.

 _The space and time players are the most crucial to any session,_ Aspico's post had said, _A session can be maintained by a space and time player alone. The two are needed to maintain the species progression from one world to another._

 _The space player tends to focus more on the task of created the new world (though the time player is known to help the space player as well), while the time player is the bridge between the former world and the new one._

 _This can take place in a number of different ways based on the class and personality of the space and time players._ 'If I'm meant to be the bridge, and I can go back in time…' Jeff thought, clicking his tongue.

"Hold that thought." he told his sprite as he got the idea for what was to happen next. He closed his eyes, focusing his time based powers, becoming the flow of time once again and passing from where he is to where he wished to be.

With a flash of red, he was in the consort kingdom in the old world, about a day before the meteors were to come and destroy the place. It was only now that he was here that it occurred to him how dangerous this was.

He needed to find the correct consorts, could only pick one of each, and had to properly explain and convince them of what they needed to do before the apocalypse came. He could only use so much of his powers here or he risked dooming the timeline by creating an offshoot of it.

On top of that, he was going to have to resist the urge to try saving anyone extra from the impending disaster. He was here for one purpose and he couldn't stray from it without ruining everything that the session was intending to build.

At first he wasn't frightened, as he knew that he had already completed this particular mission; he remembered seeing the red light of his teleportation at the very start of his game, and he could now assume that it had been him from the future coming back to create his sprite, but then he remembered that doomed version of himself he'd spoken with.

He could still very well become that version of himself if he messed up. He gulped, wishing he'd thought this through more before turning back through time.

He took a deep breath, and went into the consort kingdom to begin his search.

* * *

Patior woke with his wings, clothes, skin, inventory; basically everything soaked through.

He was back in his land, and had been unconscious in the rain for quite awhile now. Whatever he'd been doing, it had evidently failed. It took him a few moments to ignore the throbbing pain in his skull and recall where he was and what he was doing.

'Right.. The teal blood..' He remembered. Her fist had gotten rather acquainted with his head. His sniper rifle very much needed to be upgraded if he were to avoid his targets reacting faster than the shot than he cope with. As he sat up, he wondered two things.

The first was why Furlok hadn't killed him. Surely she had to know that god tiers were immortal to all but just and heroic deaths, and his large indego wings weren't exactly difficult to spot. The second was why his lusus sprite hadn't taken helped him.

Their interaction was limited sure, but normally they would at least appear to get the player to safety until they woke up and could defend themselves. Patior could feel the anger and frustration brewing from his confusion, but refused to let it overtake him.

He was the Mage of Mind, logic and thought would see him through. He adjusted into a meditative position, closing his eyes and using his Process ability to focus his thoughts and think about what was happening to him.

The ability focused his mind further, letting his mind connect the ideas floating around within his mind.

Finally, he reached the conclusion.

And immediately burst into tears.

They weren't very loud, nor could it really be seen considering the constant rain, but it was still there as the information he'd uncovered broke the wall Patior had been using to keep in his emotions, and the guilt and regret hit him like a sledgehammer to the face.

Furlok hadn't gone for a kill shot because she did know about the just or heroic deaths for god tiers, but if she'd killed him… it would have been just, and Patior would have stayed dead.

The game, and by extension real life itself, had determined that Patior's actions were evil.

And there wasn't any subjectivity in the way for Patior to argue this time, as the universe itself was clearing objectively what the actions were to be considered. It was for this reason, Patior determined, that his lusus had not come to help protect him from any potential threats. He would have deserved anything that came to him, and both as a lusus and as a sprite, the robotic caretaker knew that Patior shouldn't have received any rewards for what he'd been doing. Patior wasn't sure how long he spent sitting there, letting his tears pour out of him like the endless rain coming down onto the land around him, soaking everything in sight.

Even when he heard monsters approaching him from the land around him he didn't immediately get up to defend himself. Patior had gotten used to ignoring emotions and only ever letting logic decide his decisions, as when he did feel his emotions he felt them the same way most people felt fire with their bare skin: intense and painfully.

The crude ogres and shale basilisk approached the sobbing indego blooded troll with devilish grins and hunger in their eyes. Before they could attack Patior and kill him while he was prone from his regret-which he was certain would still lead to a just death-a barrage of missiles rained down on the monsters.

Not quite killing any of the monsters, but keeping them away from Patior. Patior's sprite had come down and landed nearby, now maintaining some offensive fire to keep the underline monsters away from Patior, giving him time to recover from his emotions.

It seemed even when the game didn't want him to, even when his lusus instincts didn't want him to, Patior's guardian couldn't help but protect him; wanting him to learn from his mistakes rather than suffer from them.

Seeing that his lusus felt he deserved a second chance (perhaps a third, fourth, fifth, or even sixth chance by this point), gave the troll some time to get his mind back into a right mind. Patior managed to get back to his feet, using Process to focus in on battle technique as he brought out his weapon, forcing himself to think more clearly.

Objective one: fight monsters and survive. Objective two: Contact fellow players, beg for forgiveness.


	30. Chapter 30

Lurabo was getting tired of the darkness covering her planet.

She gotten into the habit of finding the High Ladders. They stood like mountains across LoLaS, and at the very top of them, Lurabo could attempt to draw the Sun card from the tarot deck.

She'd managed it twice now, and the result had been the bright spotlight spreading across the pitch dark sky, becoming an actual sky rather than just a single pinprick of it.

She wasn't sure what would happen if she accidentally drew something other than the Sun, but she doubted it would be any fun. Thankfully, she was pretty sure she was too lucky to draw something else.

She'd been on her way up to the third High Ladder when she found the stone bed with a symbol on it like the sun. She supposed it was all but certain that this was another location she was meant to draw the Sun card. If not then it was terrible advertising.

Either way, she figured it couldn't hurt to at least check with the others on what they thought. She sat down on the stone bed and took out her messenger, sending out a mass message to the other players of the session to ask if anyone knew anything about the stone beds.

There was no immediate response from the others, and with the messenger open the yellow blooded troll could again see the chat he'd had previously with Dustine.

She still wasn't sure what had happened to Dustine after he'd logged off to apparently go save Risura. She hoped they were alright, and hoped that Mutosi got a nice smack upside the head. She sighed, already getting bored waiting for a response from the others. She supposed she was the only one who wasn't incredibly busy with something important.

Just as she was about to stand up and draw from her tarot deck, a flash of red spinning gears appeared in front of her, Jeff materializing out of seemingly nothing.

"Hey, what time of it?" Jeff asked nonchalantly.

"Uh.. eleven fifty AM?" She said, only to then have to provide the actual date for Jeff, who didn't seem to even know what years it was.

He sighed in relief, "I was worried I jumped too far ahead. After I got the consorts to the sprite I kinda had to hurry to avoid being seen by past me and paradoxing us all to death. Anyway, what were you asking about?"

Lurabo blinked in confusion about what in the hell Jeff was talking about, and so decided to just focus on what she did understand.

"I was just asking about this stone bed." She said, indicating to the stone she was sitting on. Jeff looked down at it, "Oh the quest bed, yeah you should stay on that. Don't get up from it, and don't draw anything from your tarot deck until absolutely necessary." "Alright, any particular reason?" Lurabo asked.

"Yep, the best reason in fact." Jeff said.

He then promptly time teleported away without actually saying what 'the best reason' was.

Lurabo sighed. Jeff had always been a bit odd, but since the game started, he was getting to borderline detached from reality levels of strange.

Then again, she was playing a game that had either ended the world, or a game that had saved them from an inevitable apocalypse, so maybe her attachment to reality was a bit stranger than Jeff's leaving it behind at this point.

She remained sitting on the quets bed for several more boring minutes, deciding to pass the time by scrolling through the previous messages.

Of all the players in the session, she figured that she'd probably had the least amount of time to actually message the others; if only for how much time she had to spend climbing up ladders.

She found Aspico's post about the 'classpects' as they were called and began looking them over.

 _Light, the aspect of, appropriately enough, illumination. This can be literal in the form of actual light, or metaphorical in the form of wisdom and the uncovering of hidden truths. The Light aspect also deals with probability. For good or for ill. Historically, one of the Creators was a Seer of Light, and could naturally predict the outcomes of events when tied to knowledge or probability._

Lurabo found this interesting.

She supposed there was a bit of probability in her use of her tarot deck. One wrong draw and she could do more damage to herself than to anything she was trying to fight. She scrolled down to the classes next.

 _Maid, the active creation aspect. Unlike the passive creation of the Sylph, which is used for healing, the Maid is not specifically a healer, though they do tend to be support players. Their power is the literal, physical creation of their aspect. Historically, one of the Creators was the Maid of Life, and had the power to create life energy for an otherwise dead body, returning them to life._

Lurabo thought this over, curious what these classpects were about. Did she get to choose a set? Or was it completely unrelated to the game they were currently playing?

Before she could scroll up to check with the previous messages to find what Aspico's point had been in posting this list had been, a loud thud signalled a large creature landing on the same platform Lurabo was currently occupying.

Looking up, Lurabo felt a sinking feeling as she looked over the three Alabaster ogres, the five Jade Basilisks, the two Brimstone lichs, and the swarm of ten or fifteen Brick imps.

Of the ogres, all had cyborgetic left arms and long hooked claws from their left, long hooked tails and laughing clown faces. The basilisks had long scorpion tails and pincers, their limbs extending in thorned vines and poison spitting flowers and their heads wolf-like.

The lichs both had long gator mouths and turtle shells, mouse ears sprouting from their heads and eyes glowing with cybernetics. The imps were all in the air with jet wings, sharp beaks, and armed with tommy guns and cuesticks.

They all swarmed on Lurabo at once. Her initial instinct was to draw form her deck, but remembered Jeff's warning to wait until absolutely necessary and remain on the quest bed no matter what.

Grumbling at what seemed like an arbitrary rule, she instead took out the Arcane, holding the magical staff aloft as she focused her natural telekinesis. The wave of mental energy surged through the area, pushing the monsters back away from her.

She send a blast of magic into the swarm above her head, reaching down to the Slicer Suites and sending a few bladed cards at the ground enemies. Her cards managed to kill one of the basilisks, and her magical blasts were making short work of the imps overhead.

She grit her teeth as she focused her telekinesis to slow the firing of the ogres missile launching to prevent herself being blown up.

She surprised herself by how long she managed to hold out with this, getting all of the imps, the other basilisk, and one of the lich before she ran out of bladed playing cards. The Arcane had grown hot to the touch from repeated firing, and threatened to break if she kept going, and her head was now splitting from the headache of repeated bursts of telekinesis.

Her left arm went numb from a blast of magic from the lich, she had a bullet in her foot, a bleeding yellow gash in her leg, and while the ogres appeared to be out of missiles, they were still moving forward to attack directly while the lich prepared its next spell. If now wasn't 'absolutely necessary' she wasn't sure what was.

She reached down to her tarot deck, drawing from it. When she saw the card she'd drawn, her blood went cold. She had not drawn the Sun like she'd been expecting. The card she was drawn was the Devil.

The last time she had drawn it, it had been the death of her lusus. And in the seconds before she lost consciousness, she realized this time it was the death of her; her heart exploding in her chest.

She collapsed on the quest bed, the monsters looking on in confusion at her sudden death. Then, they looked on in even greater confusion as she rose from the bed, glowing bright yellow.

When she landed back on her feet and returned to consciousness, her wounds had been healed, and her clothing had been changed to a new outfit. She had a hood up now and the symbol of sun, of the Light aspect, on her chest. Her legs were wrapped in bandages now.

On top of that, a pair of thin, delicate yellow butterfly wings had sprouted from her back.

The Maid of Light had ascended.

In the moment of stillness before the monsters began moving again, she realized why she'd been drawn to those two descriptions in Aspico's post.

She reached down to her tarot deck, tapping into the powers she felt she should have now-or perhaps had always had and been using without knowing. Creating extra luck for herself, the yellow blood drew from the deck, holding up the Tower.

The card's power of disruption and failure spread through the monsters, causing their mechanical attributes to all malfunction and explode at once, killing them all instantly. She whistled, impressed by her own draw; and by the light radiating off of her. She took out her messenger and sent a follow up reply to her last message about the quest bed.

SOI: Nvrmind, figured it out.

* * *

Jeff had arrived on Furlok's land. It had been a rather distressingly intense time for him to deal with creating Consortsprite.

He'd found four of his favorite consort folk form their kingdom-one of each species-and slowed down time for them just enough that he could explain what was happening and why he needed their help.

The consorts were a rather calm, docile people, and it had been easy enough to convince them to enter the sprite at first, but he had wanted to make certain that they were all entirely aware of what was happening and what being in the sprite would mean. They wouldn't ever be capable of not being in the sprite.

They'd be fused together permanently. Even with this knowledge though, all four of them had been fairly pragmatic about the whole thing, understanding that they were needed to do this.

They accepted the task and entered the sprite together, first the crocodile and turtle, then the salamander and iguana.

It only occurred to him after the fact that reversing that order would have made the enemies on his land, and by extension the final boss, much weaker and easier to deal with, but he was in a hurry.

He wasn't late yet and didn't want to be made so by indecision. After leaving Lurabo's land, he went to Furlok's, finding the session's space player standing on her quest bed at the top of a high spire.

She seemed to be trying to find a way to kill herself so she could god tier without it hurting. She was out of bombs, so her only option were her bladed paintbrushes, and she seemed rather averse to pain caused by herself.

Brendon wasn't there to help with the consensual murder, as he was off enjoying his new moirallegiance with Valtina.

Jeff rolled his eyes, slowing down time so Furlok couldn't respond fast enough, and flew down to the teal blood, slamming his bat into her skull with as much force as possible.

She blacked out instantly, her skull cracking as she collapsed on the stone bed.

Jeff sighed, supposing he should probably work on his swinging strength. If he couldn't one hit skill a normal troll he wouldn't be able to do too much damage to the boss. He drove another powerful bat swing into Furlok's head to finish killing her, then back up off of the bed so she could ascend.

Furlok floated off of the bed, body restoring itself as she spread large teal wings, her clothing shifting into a black thief's outfit, boots replacing her shoes and a hood and cape appeared, the space symbol (a white circle spiral) on her chest. The Thief of Space had ascended. And then she bitch slapped the Heir of Time.

"Ow." He said simply.

Furlok grumbled in annoyance, "I was gonna do it myself." She said.

"No, you were gonna stall and stall and stall and I don't have the patience for it." Jeff said, "let's get back to the frog machines now. Time player is supposed to help the Space player with it."


	31. Chapter 31

Aspico found her quest bed in the center of a grove.

She'd been guided to it by one of her feline consorts after one of their therapy sessions. Her skills at seeing passed the enforced madness into the souls of her consorts, both literally and metaphorically, had made her land's challenge more a matter of keeping track of everyone's stability, slowly helping them back to their right minds.

And now, she thought, hear was her reward. It had the heart symbol carved into it, and as the consort left the grove, she moved onto the stone slab, taking out her pitch piercer. As she did every time she took out her spade themed rapier, she thought about Patior. Mage of Mind, the active understander, and the aspect opposite Aspico's own.

Their powers ran parallel, with their aspects veering in opposite directions. Rather poetic given their history she supposed to herself. In his own way, the indego blood had in fact believed he'd bene helping them, just as Aspico; he'd just come at it from a more practical level, too hard line logical, no movement, no accounting for emotions.

If he could only learn that his perspective was not the only valid one in the world, then he'd be respectable, admirable even.

Aspico bit her lip at this this thought. As she positioned her weapon to commit sebuku on her quest bed, she wondered about their classpects. Had she and Patior been destined to be what they were from the word go? Or had their personalities decided what they would be after the fact? Could she have just as easily been a Mage, or Patior a Seer?

She shook her head, ridding herself of these thoughts for the time being and driving her sword through her stomach. Only after the fact did she realize how ineffective a suicide strategy this was, as her rapier was too thin a blade to cause instant fatality after a single stab.

She withdrew the blade, body shaking from the pain and drove it back in, then a third time. Her Clear Mind Covers were stained with her olive green blood from the repeated punctures, but she at least managed to do fatal damage to herself before the pain became too great for her to move, leaving her prone on the quest bed, waiting to ascend while listening to the Exiled.

'Curious choice for a self destruction method,' she said, 'for a Seer, you don't seem to have much foresight.'

'Not my most intelligent decision I'll admit.' Aspico replied mentally to her Exiled, 'but the rapier is the only lethal item I carry, I was rather limited in potential murder methods.'

'True, but a few seconds of extra thought could have led you to simply leaving, finding something for a more peaceful or at least instant death and returning.'

'Are you simply going to berate me this entire time? Seems rather cruel.'

'I don't mean to be cruel, I simply want you to go into your ascension with this: don't knock logic and hardline facts. Doing so is just as harmful as ignoring the emotions and souls of those around you.'

These were the last thoughts Aspico heard before the wounds finally killed her.

And from this death, she to ascended, rising form her quest bed. Her body was restored, her outfit replaced with the long robes and eyes obscuring hood of a Seer, dark purple of the heart aspect with the pink symbol on her chest, and two thin, elegant olive green butterfly wings sprouting from her back.

She blinked as she looked around, looking around at the environment around her. Where before she'd been able to see the souls of living things around her through focus and patience, now she was simply able to see them effortlessly, seeing both the plane on which the souls resided, and the physical plane at the same time, overlaid over each other.

This would make her work with the consorts even easier. Her first order of business was alchemy; combining her god tier outfit with her Clear Mind Covers, creating the Sink Seer Shroud. As she did this, she received a message.

Upon checking it, she realized that the entire session had in fact received this message from Patior.

He wasn't even typing with his quirk anymore, which among trolls was a sign of things being truly serious.

 **EE: Before this session can proceed, the air must be cleared. I.. I have made mistakes over the course of this game.**

 **EE: Yes, I know, please hold your 'no shit' comments and others along the same lines. I'm certain that it is obvious to all but me that things have been going wrong with me during this session. Fuck, it started before the session, long before.**

 **EE: I just.. I never knew. It's been right in front of me this entire time but I could never see it. Maybe it's because I've known from the word go that others couldn't be trusted fully, because of whatever disaster happened to my lusus that even now with power over my mind I can't seem to remember. I've come at every issue from the starting point of 'I'm the only logical one, and I need to fix this' and ignored anything that might challenge the belief.**

 **EE: Contradictory behavior I realize now, nothing logical to it at all. Add to that my bloody minded determination to play into the 'villain team' roll, acting like it was important when in reality it's an utterly arbitrary label, in place only to provide a framework for the game, and my classpect playing into my ego.. It was perfect storm.**

 **EE: I'm still not altogether certain it's cleared, but the clouds are farther apart now than they've ever been before at the very least. All I can do is offer apologies. To those on the opposing team for what I've done, and to those on my team for what I've convinced you to do.**

 **EE: Java, when you see this, find Arvis' quest bed and kill him. He'll be revived with his mind and body restored in full regardless of your efforts, and even if he isn't fully back mentally, you can use your abilities to remove it from the surrounding area and return it to him. Try not returning all of it though.. As a blood player a sense of connection could be exactly what he needs to unlock his full powers.**

 **EE: Aspico.. I know you're the least likely one of us to overlook all I've done, but for the sake of the session, we need to work together. I'm ready to if you are. Even as the session's Seer, Aspico couldn't have predicted this. Whatever he and the other players had been up to must have put the Mage's ass to the fire and kicked his brain into gear at last. The desire to reply with a long drawn own, self satisfied 'I told you so' message was strong, but with a deep breath, the Seer resisted it.**

 **OP: No need to be so dramatic indigo. I think we've all caught on by this point. I'm more than willing to work together and form a plan for finishing this game in one piece. I suspect Risura and Mutosi won't be so willing to put things behind them and move on without some resolution to their pitch laden arguing. And conveniently, after the others read your little apology, they'll be the only two who've not yet ascended.**

 **EE: Indeed. I suppose someone will need to organize a more civilized meeting sand brawl between them, perhaps both should have someone on hand to take them back to their lands after they're done.**

 **CD: I can be Ris' second, least I can do after he did the same for me.**

 **DT: And I can probably be in place to get Mutosi or what's left of her to her quest bed. Not exactly a teammate I'll admit but if we're all finally working together it hardly seems to matter.**

 **EE: Good. Dustine, how's god tiering treating you?**

 **CD: 1. Purple is officially my color. 2. Caped rule, fuck the Incredibles. 3. I just slammed my mace into a moat and it exploded. This rules.**

 **EE: Fair enough. Standby for further information with Risura and Mutosi. Me and Aspico will be preparing a plan to finish this game in the meantime.**

* * *

Java and Arvis had reached the top of the mountain they'd been climbing.

Curiously, the summit had only one thing of note on it: a stone bed with an odd mark on it, looking like a rough sketch of a bleeding wound. It reminded her of the bed she'd found on her land. Wellm, the bed she'd broke her neck on.

The memory alone seemed to bring a crick to her neck. She considered asking Arvis if he knew anything about it, but he'd been drained completely dry by now, practically a walking corpse.

He sat down on the stone bed next to Java. The Rogue sighed, looking away from him and taking out her messenger to see what Patior was going on about.

As she read through his message, her eyes widened more and more as she realized that the instructions she'd been given from him had been wrong, and her instincts on the matter had been correct.

Before she could break down however, she reached the part of the message specifically addressing her. She was weary to follow anymore of Patior's orders, especially orders that involved finishing Arvis off, but when she saw Aspico agreeing, she realized he may have been telling the truth this time.

She put her messenger away, taking Arvis in her arms. Hugging him in the state he was currently in was akin to hugging a showroom mannequin, but still. She adjusted her hold on him, arms around his head before she jerked her body to one side to snap his neck.

Quick, painless.

He slumped lifelessly on the bed, and thankfully began to ascend before Java could wonder if she'd been tricked again.

He lifted from the bed, Java using her powers to return at least eighty percent of the wind she'd taken from him back to him as his body was healed. What caught Java most off guard was the outfit that Arvis gained as the Page of Blood.

The dark red cape, hood, and shirt with the blood red Blood symbol on the chest she could understand.

The extremely tight short shorts of the same color that left Arvis legs bare and left little to the imagination from the waist down was a bit more surprising.

More surprising to Arvis, once he'd returned fully to consciousness that is, was the almost hungry look in Java's eyes as she asked him not to change or alter the outfit in any way when he suggested changing.


	32. Chapter 32

Jeff had relayed the decisions made by the team leaders to the two Witch of Hope and Bard of Void, and both were entirely up for their fight being sanctioned.

Mutosi and Risura had agreed to meet on neutral territory. Rather than fight on either of their lands, where they would be suspicious of their opponent having a home field advantage of some kind, they met on LoGaS, doubting that Jeff would for some reason rig things one way or the other; especially since neither of the fighters were on his team.

Dustine was nearby as well, though Jeff would be able to slow him to a stop with the Temporal Turnover ability so he didn't disrupt the fight; which could also be done if anything went wrong with the fights.

While not physically present, Aspico was watching as well, her literal heart eyes on them-or at least their souls-as they approached to begin fighting.

"Do either of you have anything to say to each other before you start?" Jeff asked as everyone arrived in one of the wider open sections of metallic land. Jeff had timed it more or less perfectly, so the shifting of the gears wouldn't happen for another few hours, and they'd be safe to conduct their fight here, "Maybe a confession of some kind, perhaps one lingering in the pitch quadrant?" The Heir of Time none-too-subtly nudged his friends.

The two glared at each other, the blackrom tension thick enough to cut with, well, a spade.

"Oh just say it. You both know it, we know, the freaking King Denizens know it by now I'd have to say." Jeff said tapping his foot.

After a few minutes, the femboy jade blood was the one to go for it, saying, "Mutosi.. You're a bitch. A sexy, sexy, highly driven bitch. Would you be my kismesis?" He asked.

Mutosi, with a shiver going up her spine, swallowed a single twinge of her pride and answered with, "And you're a strong, intelligent, piece of girly boy troll garbage, who I'll gladly join in a sharp, pitch black spade~"

Risura's arm surged out, grabbing Mutosi's arm and pulling her in close. Their bodies pressed together, their lips meeting heatedly as their tongues began to dance together.

Jeff sighed with an expression of, 'well it's about time.' As Dustine couldn't help but go, 'd'aww~' At the sight, though he blushed slightly at the sight of Mutosi's hand moving down and roughly grabbing Risura's feminine rump.

Before things could grow anymore heated, the Bard's knee shot up driving into Mutosi's gut and causing her to stumble back with the wind knocked out of her.

The fight was on.

Jeff was acting as an impromptu auspistice, and had set down a few ground rules for the two of them to follow, for this battle and for any battles they ever had in the future: Mutosi couldn't use her Test of Faith technique to alter Risura's beliefs, and Risura couldn't use his Rip technique to cause any permanent damage to Mutosi.

But this didn't limit either of them much. Mutosi swung her broom, the bladed fibers of it sending Risura back a few steps with a jade green lash across his cheek. He ducked under the following swing, driving his fist into her jaw and knocking her back further.

The fight was starting to look somewhat one-sided; until Mutosi caught her balance and used her Hope Bend ability, firing off a bolt of pure white hope power.

Risura was blasted off of his feet, thrown through the air before landing hard on the metal ground his shirt burnt off and burns across his chest. He sat up, yelping and having to roll out of the way of follow up hope bolts from Mutosi.

The brown blood lashed out rapid fire, knowing she couldn't allow him time to recover. If he did, he'd close the distance between them easily.

Unfortunately for her, while he couldn't use Rip on her, he could use it on other things, and drove his fist into one of the hope bolts, causing it to vanish into nothingness, cast into the void.

Panting, Risura got to his feet, and when Mutosi's next bolt hit him, it passed through harmlessly; his Forget Me Not power providing temporary intangibility.

He rushed forward, dodging and passing through bolts to get in close again for another up close attack; only stopped by Mutosi's brown blooded communion ability, causing a harpy winged shale imp with mole claws and a clown face to swoop down at him, tackling him and driving both pairs of claws into Risura's body.

Dustine reflexively started to move towards him to help him, but Jeff grabbed his hand to stop him and pulled him back.

He gave a pouting look and tapped his foot nervously as he watched the fight continue. The Rip technique wasn't even needed for the shale imp, Risura reducing it to grist in a single punch.

For the sake of the fight, Risura had deactivated his clothing's healing ability, and so no healing took place as spots of green began to spread from the puncture holes.

While he was distracted by this, another hard swing from Mutosi's broom connected with his chin and knocked him off his feet, his back hit hard with a Hope Bend again.

Grunting, Risura kicked out at his kismesis' legs, knocking her off of them rolling over on top of her, beginning to wail on her with all he had. Under normal circumstances, this would more or less have been victory for Risura, as his repeated punching was preventing Mutosi from counter attacking in any way.

But as Risura beat Mutosi near to death, hands stained bronze from her blood, his movements began to slow down. Not because he didn't want to fully kill her, he was pretty sure he could get a few solid punches in before that became a risk, was pretty sure Mutosi would actively enjoy him taking them, and very much wanted to as well.

No, his slowing down came from a sudden, powerful exhaustion and pain spreading through his body. The bladed fibers were not the most dangerous feature of Mutosi's broom; the venom lining every single blade was.

Both impacts she'd gotten on Risura had been the equivalent of a dozen different stings, and the physical movement of the fighting had only helped the venom spread through Risura's body. He collapsed on top of his kismesis, the battle a draw.

Dustine rushed over, picking Risura up, holding him princess style as he turned to get going.

"You've got exactly ten minutes before the poison kills him," Jeff said as he picked Mutosi up, "I've sent the map of his land to you." Dustine nodded, thanking him and flying off to the gate while Jeff did the same with Mutosi.

The two took the only non-god tier players to their lands, Jeff finding Mutosi's quest bed at the top of a massive sand dune that completely buried a massive library. He dropped her onto the bed, letting the blood loss and crushed bones do their job.

Once she'd died, Mutosi began to ride from her bed, wounds completely healed, and her clothing replaced with her new Witch of Hope outfit; an elegant gold dress with a lighter yellow for the torsu; the hope symbol on the chest, and the matching darker gold for the flowing twin tailed hood. Her legs were wrapped in yellow and white stockings, feet now in a pair of ruby red slippers.

She blinked, looking down at herself, then at the pair of long brown butterfly wings that had spread from her back, "Woah." Jeff nodded in approval, beginning to explain to her the new circumstances.

Meanwhile, Dustine was power charging through LoLaD with a minor Rage aura around him as he left a trail behind him. He rushed passed the dark patches of wilderness, powering directly through minor enemies without slowing.

He ran through the towns, completely ignoring the chortling and wicket cries, even slamming through one of their buildings like a human wrecking ball. He charged through and the thick grass and finally reached the mountain. Rather than go down the cave that Risura had explored, he kicked off the ground and began soaring directly up as fast as possible, finally reaching the quest bed at the top and placing Risura on top of it, the rage aura fading as he panted.

Shortly after setting him down, the venom finished him off, and he began to rise from the bed. His wounds, and presumably the venom, vanished from his body, the clothing swapped out his new outfit.

The shirt was a deep blue with the void symbol on it, long pants ending in shoes that curled up like an elf's. Little tassels of matching deep cloudy blue handing from the back like a tattered cape. Completing the outfit was a large bulky hat with three dots leading up it.

The outfit was a bit garish and over the top, but the sleek green wings were beautiful, and on Risura, Dustine could have found anything attractive.

* * *

 **By the by, was the use of ability names jarring at all? I've been keeping a list of them, but wasn't sure if I should use them or not.**


	33. Chapter 33

Brendon let out a war cry as he charged again.

Aspico and Patior had sent out the next order for what to do in the game, that being to just return to whatever your land was and get stronger.

Solve missions, defeat enemies, alchemize; whatever was needed of you. And for Brendon, that meant braving the nightmare that was his fleshy, fanged land. After making sure his gear was ready he headed to the Hill of Death, the sight of the consorts last stand against the denizen before they'd all been killed; reduced to the spirits they lived as now.

A massive boss monster called the Dreaded kept the last warriors of LoFaM from escaping.

Brendon believed that if he could defeat the Dreaded, he could inspire the other consorts and lead a charge into the Maw; a wall of massive fangs that he was certain hid the denizen. Brendon's axe collided with the leg of the Dreaded's leg, sending black fire across it.

It let out a hiss like several cows dying in unison and brought down a massive broadsword on top of him. He rose his axe to block it, managing to do so; but getting his feet wedged into the ground in the process.

He switched to his Super Shotty, firing both shots into the twisted body of the boss. It staggered back, switching to an axe of its own swinging hard. It cleaved through Brendon painfully, the Prince of Doom needing to rely on one of the new powers he'd discovered to survive the strike.

Sinister Sacrifice. The ability allowed him to destroy his own doom, keeping himself alive. It wasn't as good as Brendon had been hoping, as it only kept him alive and didn't actually heal him; but he figured he could get healing from his moirale later.

He put both weapons away and, following some advice Aspico had given him, he attempted to manifest his Prince of Doom powers more offensive. It formed in his hands as a bright glowing orb, a Death Bringer. It looked to him like a slightly more malicious version of a Spirit Bomb. He only managed to grow it about the twice the size of a ping-pong ball, launching it at the Dreaded.

Even with such small size, it still ate through a shocking amount of the monster's health bar dropping it into the red.

The Dreaded let out a painful shriek, grabbing at its flesh and pulling it off like it as just a cloak. A thick, black smog began pouring out of the holes, turning the body into a mass of sentient smoke. The sword and axe rose from the ground, evidently now able to attack independently while the smoke summoned dark spirits.

"Fuck me." Brendon grumbled as the rush of attacks came hurling at him.

* * *

Patior's sniper bullet killed the monster spawner at the top of the metal cube in one quick headshot.

The indego blood was kicking himself now that he was thinking clearly. What he needed to do seemed so obvious in retrospect.

Dumbass consorts with towns that rusted because they were made of shitty metal, massive metal cubes that didn't rust. He hadn't eve needed to use his new Mage of Mind Process ability to figure it out, he just needed to not get distracted plotting to murder people.

Granted, he was still getting distracted talking to Aspico, and was able to use his Process ability to focus on sniping the monsters around the cubes to clear a path for the consorts to harvest the metal and send messages to the olive blood at the same time.

They'd been alternating between casual conversation, actually catching up about what was going on with their lands and their lives, and somewhat impature bickering that both of them assured the other was completely platonic and not an attempt to revitalize their former pitch relationship; much the same way a nervous tsundere would claim not to live senpai.

But Patior really meant it of course. He was just getting annoyed by Aspico's constant insistence on bringing up how she categorized relationships and comparing it to his methods of categorizing information. No spade flirting whatsoever.

* * *

Furlok had finished with the frogs.

Well, at least she had finished the actual gathering of frogs. All that was left on that front was to let the ecto-biology machine within the frog temple crunch and blend the DNA to breed the Genesis Frog while she went off to train.

She wasn't sure what there was for her to do if not work on the frogs, as there weren't many monsters in the frog zone for her to fight. She came rather close to legitimately focusing on her painting for the first time in awhile; then remembered that there was an entire half of the planet that she had been neglecting up to now.

She grumbled as she returned to the marketplace half of LoMaF, immediately getting insults and accusations thrown at her from the consorts running the shops. She supposed it didn't help that she was in fact wearing a Thief's outfit now.

She'd alchemized it with her other garments now to up its stats-though she'd gone out of her way to keep the deep black of Space aspect-but it did still look very noticeably like Thief garment.

The consorts were so focused on threatening Furlok for what she might do, they didn't even seem to notice the underlings that were actually stealing from them.

She rolled her eyes, taking out her brushes to get to work clearing the marketplace of the monsters.

* * *

Java jumped over the Greater Drake, hovering above the golden scaled reptile before launching herself down at it and driving her brass knuckles into its skull.

There was a disquieting crack before the beast dissolved into grist. Java gathered it all quickly, then brought her hand back up to her headset.

She had it set up to talk to Arvis at any time, "Are you alright?" She asked, slightly nervous about how long she'd gone without saying anything. At least ten minutes fighting the mini-boss, and five getting up to the location to fight him.

"I'm alright Java," Arvis replied through the headset, "I was fine twenty minutes ago, and fine twenty minutes before that."

"Hey, considering everything that happened, it's not like being worried is unprecedented." Java said. According to Aspico, she and Arvis were oscillated, drifting back and forth between the red and pale quadrants as Java grew more protective of him.

 _"Frankly it's surprising you managed to get together at all,"_ Aspico had said when they were talking before the training began, _"Under normal circumstances, the things you'd done to him would be too much to handle and it wouldn't be a stable relationship. But Arvis seems astonishingly alright with you. Whether it's a matter of his classpect's natural ability, or just his love of you, not even I can say."_

Even if Arvis was willing to so quickly forgive her for blindly following Patior's orders, Java wasn't quite ready to forgive herself. Not until she, Arvis, and everyone else were on the other side of this game.

* * *

Aspico was wondering through the wilderness of her land, her Soul Search ability letting her keep an eye on the world around her so she didn't crash into anything while the majority of her attention went into replying to Patior's messages.

She felt somewhat like she was back on Grubtube in heated arguments over which pairings in various shows were the best together.

All she'd done was bring up the slight similarities she'd noticed between her shipping system and Patior's filing system, and let him know about some of her old ships. That may have been a mistake in retrospect, but they were in the weeds now, and there was no going back until the argument was settled.

It was.. No, she wasn't going to say that it was exhilarating.

That was such a classic blackrom-romcom line that it might cause Aspico to collapse in on herself from sheer force of cliche.

But she couldn't deny she was enjoying herself. Infuriating as Patior was, he was a wonderful opponent in a debate. He didn't just spew nonsense like she tended to expect. He'd gotten smarter since the days of their ill fated spade fling, and she'd gotten more flexible in her topics of conversation.

Her thoughts were cut off slightly by her Soul Sense picking up on a very powerful source of life in the distance.

She drew her Pitch Peircer-the IRL symbolism of her having chosen to keep the weapon with its name and associated implications not lost on her as she headed out towards her new prey.

* * *

Dustine wasn't thrilled with the idea of leaving Risura on his land all alone again.

The last time that had happened he'd reportedly gone into a cave and come out of it a laughing, psychotic mess. But he promised that he would be alright, and Dustine turned his focus to his own land.

The purple aura of his Rage power pulsated around his body and his weapon and he went from town to town across his land.

Beforehand he'd just been fighting anyone who challenged him and putting no actual thought into it, but now he'd noticed something. In every town, there was one consort bigger and tougher than all the rest.

One that, with Dustine's help, was potentially strong enough to raise the moat bridge up. For what purpose, Dustine still had no idea. But it was too coincidental how there only one massive musclenaught to a town, and how there was always some consort willing to mention that before the denizen had riled up everyone, lifting the moat had been their job.

It was his task to get these toads moving. Well, more to trick them, getting their existing movement pointed towards something productive; even if it meant challenging him to a sparring match to get them going.

He'd had to do so several times already, and as he grappled the eight foot toad man, the purple aura of his Fortitude ability reinforcing his muscles so he could hold his ground, he was pretty sure he would have to for every town on LoMaW.

* * *

Lurabo held her Arcane aloft, focusing her psychokinesis through it to spread its natural magical blast out over the Swarm in front of her.

The Swarm's individual components didn't really exist, the creature a single mid-boss simply made up of multiple pieces.

Lurabo was hoping that the widespread blast would take the entire thing out faster.

Granted, there was always the chance of a few bits of the Swarm surviving and manifesting as specific winged enemies; but Lurabo had recently been informed of the power she had over chance.

She still wasn't sure if she was doing it right, but she tried to focus on steadily boosting her own natural luck as she fired the blast into the Swarm, and to her delight the entire mid-boss had just so happened to group together into a single mass when she'd fired, letting her burn the entire boss to death in a single strike.

She tried to keep her victory dance from being too nerdy, but she supposed it probably didn't matter since she was alone in the dark. Speaking of.. Luck was the only thing she could generate.

Her new powers made it possible to give off light, making her wonder if this was how Risura and the other jade bloods felt in the dark.

She supposed that there must be a reason to have such a specific ability. She could see the platforms that the spotlights were illuminating.

But.. what if there were platforms with no spotlight illuminating them...

* * *

Risura had been alternating between chatting with Dustine and exploring his land.

Well, exploring may have been a generous description of the chaotic death charge he was making across his land. Rather than ignore the chuckle-fucks in the town, he'd begun using his Rip ability to bust into their buildings and start asking questions.

He supposed it was probably a rather odd sight to see for those on the inside. He'd started looking at himself in the more lately, and despite his arms and legs being very visibly muscled, Mutosi really had been right. Jade bloods were ninety percent female, and it really did show in his feminine appearance.

He was able to afford taking note of such things, as he didn't actually need to focus on training much, as he fought with bare fists and had maxed out physical stats already. The consorts on his land had all been driven mad by something, and in similar ways to Risura himself when he'd returned from the cave.

The word 'Nyarlathotep' kept coming up when he tried questioning them. There wasn't any way to gather more information unfortunately, all the books on his land either burned for heat or scrawled over with nonsense.

Either way, he was starting to suspect that the denizen was not the only corruptive force on his land.

Nyarlathotep…

* * *

Jeff had spent even more time in the past and future now.

He'd spoken with versions of himself that had failed and, with Aspico and Patior's help, been able to make a list of all the things he would have to do in order to prevent the timeline from dooming itself.

It was an extremely long list, one making the Heir of Time wonder if all sessions had as many potential ways of fucking up, or if his friends were just that fucking volatile.

He wasn't sure which would be better or worse. He thought at first that he should get right to it, as it would be important to shorten that list as quickly as possible; then it occurred to him that he was a time travel, and he was already technically more than a year older than the other members of the session despite him not having been gone at all from their point of view.

Procrastination was so much easier when you could literally become time itself. Jeff decided to spend a bit of it in the present. He'd already figured out where all the keys were, might as well finish off the basic bosses and get the internal clock structure of this land going properly again.

The glimpses he'd seen when looking into doomed timelines had showed him some rather interesting clockwork enemies.

* * *

Valtina had already restored life to the majority of her land.

It had been her mission from the moment she'd figured out she was capable of healing. She was still somewhat embarrassed by how long it had taken her to figure out that the healing had been coming from her and not her magic gloves (said gloves had no healing powers whatsoever she realized, and instead converted her healing power into physical strength when she focused).

By her estimate about seventy percent of her land was already healed. She had been looking for more sections of ruined territory to heal when she'd stumbled upon a giant of an enemy; a thirteen foot tall musclenaught.

It was rooted to the ground, two hooked tails extending from the back, feathered arms, a painted clown face with a cyber eye, and a massive horn. Said horn didn't come from any of the sprites Valtina realized, and was just inherent in the Archeon enemies.

The Sylph of Life took out her Sawvel and Razor Spade. She supposed that she did need to keep her combat skills sharp if she didn't want to get relegated to pure healer.

That particular thought made her wonder if Brendon was alright at the moment. His land was dreadful from what he'd told her of it.

She blushed when she realized how embarrassingly pale she was being; even in the face of a massive beast that was trying to ensnare her with its powerful roots.

* * *

Arvis took cover from the turret sentry.

"You still doing alright?" Java asked him through the headset.

"I'm fine dear." Arvis said jokingly, "Just being shot by a living turret gun." He was glad that she and him were finally together.

Well, frankly he was just fine being a living sentient creature again as opposed to the husk he'd been reduced to by her powers. He knew it hadn't been her fault, even if she didn't seem to.

In the meantime, Arvis had decided to dedicate the majority of his time to being someone worthy of her being guilty over fucking with. He supposed he should endeavor to do something with the consorts, and had started by looking around the Blood Stone Mountains.

After beating the boss in the first mountain cave, he'd found an item; a piece of paper with a speech on it. Well, with a fragment of a speech on it. He'd sound another fragment at the end of the second mountain's cave.

He hoped that getting all the pieces would unlock some kind of special speech he could use to unite the consorts. Or at the very least get them to stop fucking throwing trash at him and each other anytime they were seen out in the open. Unfortunately there was a goddamn turret blocking this one.

"Go for whatever's powering it." Java suggested. Arvis clicked his tongue, glancing around the rock he was hiding behind. In the brief moment before he had to duck back behind the rock to avoid the several bullets being fired at him, he saw a core machine beneath the main guns of the turret.

He took out his hookshot and hook sword. This part would be a bit tricky..

* * *

Mutosi had been torn on what to do with the camel consorts.

She had agreed to return them all to their points of origin, but doing so would leave her without an army; and more to the point if her task had not been to brainwash all of them to free them from the confines of their BS faith system, then she had no idea what she was actually meant to be doing; and she didn't like the idea of essentially being back at square one with nothing to show for it but a slightly stronger broom and a new power.

She shuddered at the thought of actually having to research this land's shitty lore to figure out what the fuck she was supposed to do next. She wanted to be angry at something, but she couldn't even manage that because there was no one to be angry at but herself.

Sighing, she began the long, slow march to the starting point of her land. She stood at the head of the camel army this time though, figuring the least she could do was fight the monsters that arrived.

She wished Aspico hadn't reminded her that the consorts were actually living, sentient creatures. Things had been so much easier when she'd been able to just think of them as mindless, emotionless drones.

Now she'd have to get used to this whole 'empathy' thing.

* * *

 **Yes the next few chapters will just be various training stuffs. If you'd rather just skip to the fighting of the many denizens, I do have the story going forward plotted out, so let me know in the reviews. Assuming anyone aside from me even still cares about this fucking story XD**


	34. Chapter 34

Brendon and Valtina stood at the highest point of the cemetery.

The Grand Cemetary was the massive gravesite for the consorts who'd fought the denizen and been killed in the process. Together, the pale couple had gathered a large amount of the ghostly consorts from around LoFaM.

Brendan's general warrior aura and Valtina's kind charisma was proving really valuable to get as many of them as possible; and here was the largest collection of ghost consorts on the entire planet.

They were all so sorrowful, both from the memories of how badly things had gone, and from the corrupted spirits overhead, keeping them from thinking about how much damage they actually had managed to do to the denizen before they were killed, preventing them from feeling anything from despair.

As a result, the basket ball sized Doom Bringer Brendon had fired into the air to drive off the corrupted spirits had not only gotten everyone's attention and driven off the enemies, but also lifted the cursed thoughts from their minds, letting them think properly.

Granted, even without the curse they would still need to be convinced to join Brendon on his war march to the denizen.

He'd already found the path to them. Their lair was hidden behind a massive wall of extremely dense fangs called the Maw.

He was pretty sure his new powers would let him get passed the Maw and in to the denizen, but he didn't want to risk it without help.

And when it came to convincing them, seeing that Valtina's Sylph of Life powers allowed her to revive the spirits, returning them into flesh and blood beings, worked pretty well. It would take her awhile to heal this many people, but she seemed happy to help her moirale.

At least, she assumed it would take a long time, until Brendon attempted to help, combining his destruction of doom with her healing of life.

He'd expected that, if it did anything, it would just speed the process along; he hadn't been expecting a massive AOE heal pulse that revived nearly the entire consort population in a single motion.

* * *

 **OP: God I hate you.**

Aspico's cheeks flushed a deep olive green when she realized what she'd just sent. Patior and Aspico had been messaging back and forth for awhile now.

Both of them had found the entrances to their respective denizens, Aspico through a combination of helpful tips from the consorts she'd guided back to sanity and from following the flow of soul power she could see with her powers, Patior through a combination of information the consorts had been willing to give him once his help had secured their time and mathematical calculations to triangulate the entrance to the denizen's lair.

They had been discussing how to proceed, how much training would be needed before facing the denizens and what the best way to go about said training, but Patior's comments had just started to get to her.

Granted, her own were probably getting to him as well, but he was better about keeping a lid on it.

Aspico hadn't fully realized what she was typing until she'd sent it. She'd just felt so comfortable in her bickering with him, it felt just like it had years ago, back when they'd been happy and hateful in a pitch spade together.

 **OP: Platonically I mean.**

Aspico added, only realizing in retrospect that if Patior hadn't been thinking of it as anything more than a platonic insult than he may well had started taking it another way purely because of what she'd just said now.

She facepalmed, cursing under her breath. Before she could type another message that was likely to backfire, Patior replied.

 **EE: I'm sure. Shame. Having a potential kismesis to see afterwards would be wonderful motivation to not get killed in battle against the denizen.**

 **OP: Right.. I know that. I'm the Seer remember? Obviously I'm attempting to give you a sense of false hope to keep you going strong.**

 **EE: How cold.**

 **OP: Whatever gets the job done.**

* * *

Furlok had been learning even more about her powers as she fought her way through the marketplace section of her land, generally at a loss as to what she was meant to be doing there other than fighting the monsters.

Until now that was. She'd learned that in addition to stealing velocity and using it to essentially flash step, she could steal the size and density of items as well, growing large temporarily while shrinking the target.

She'd been roughly twice the size of an ogre for two days now. She had quite a few ideas on how to use this against Brendon; both for normal combat purposes and for… more NSFK purposes.

But more than that, she'd been learning a bit more about the planet rather than just working her way through it. Unlike the rest of the players in the session it seemed, Furlok knew exactly where the denizen of her land, Echidna, was.

Her castle was in plain view of everyone. Evidently she hadn't come to this planet intentionally, but rather had crash landed on it. Her actual home was on a little moon-more of a meteor really-that orbited the planet.

She was so distressed about being away from her home, she'd begun releasing monsters of such power that the efforts the consort shopkeepers when to in order to keep their families safe was driving them slightly mad.

It didn't help that the poor planning that went into the layout of the massive marketplace made it infinitely harder to protect, too much surface area to defend with plenty of secret routes to get inside. If it were smaller, it'd be easier to guard.

Furlok looked up at the sky, seeing the glorified meteor Echidna had come from orbiting over head. Furlok had never attempted to take on this much size before, but it seemed she was gonna have to.

If she played this right, she could kill two birds with one stone.

* * *

Dustine hadn't considered how his powers could be used aside from just powering himself and his weapons up and keeping himself pumped up mentally.

He hadn't thought he would need much more than that, both because it hadn't failed him thus far and because he personally wasn't one to think too deeply into things like this.

But the Rage aspect, as Aspico had informed him, was about more than just pure aggression. It was also about negative emotions, like fear for example.

Taking this into account, he decided that if he couldn't beat the muscly consorts into helping him out, even when it was for the sake of saving their lives from the denizen living beneath them, maybe he could use a less physical motivator. The power was called Fear Tactics, letting him exploit the fears of those around them.

Doing this, and after beating the primary defending musclenought in each town, he was able to do some serious convincing. He had to get scary for it. Very, upsettingly scary.

To the point that he was kind of putting himself off with the things he said to the consorts as he wailed on their attackers. It was for the greater good he supposed, but that didn't stop him from being extremely upset by it.

He didn't want to talk to Risura about it, both because he didn't want to distract him from dealing with his fucked up land, and because compared to the literal and metaphorical darkness his matesprit had been through, his own troubles would seem like nothing.

Really, he didn't even want to talk about it, just talk at all so he could calm his nerves.

Checking over the consorts again to make sure they were still hard at work moving the moat, and giving them another Fear Tactics scolding, he found a quiet spot out of their view and took out his phone to send a message.

* * *

Lurabo answered the message from Dustine, hands free as she did so.

 **SI: What's going on?**

 **CD: Just trying to wrangle an entire planet's worth of towns to lift up the moats and cause an intentional flood.**

 **SI: Why's that?**

 **CD: Flood out the denizen. Gonna find whatever weird palace or temple or lair they're bumming around in. Gotta make a flood to get the thing to rise up into view.**

 **SI: I'd wish you luck, but producing it seems more helpful )XD**

 **CD: Lol, no kidding. So you're still letting off luck?**

 **SI: Luck, light, illumination generally. I can see more and more of the platforms and ladders that would have been out of sight otherwise. Gonna cross my fingers and try to steer these wings towards the new ladders. Wasn't sure how to find the denizen on my land at first, but it occurred to me I could probably just let out as much luck as possible and hurl myself in any given direction.**

 **CD: Fucking hell, your powers kick the shit out of mine. I'm having to put on my angry face.**

 **SI: You? With an angry face? Sorry, but that just sounds cute. `w`**

 **CD: I am Knight of Rage, Breaker of Worlds, grrr! Anything?**

 **SI: D'aww~!**

 **CD: Well it works on the consorts XP**

 **SI: I'm just teasing, lol. Risura doing alright?**

 **CD: I think so.. He's been looking into the horror-terrors more. He thinks there's one lurking about on his land.**

 **SI: Hm.. I might be able to lend him a little light, in several ways actually, to help him out.**

 **CD: Could you? That'd be great actually. My power can only help me I'm afraid.**

 **SI: '^_^' No worries, I'll try and send him a little Light, then I'll see about that big ladder I'm seeing in the distance. Good luck flooding the world.**

* * *

Risura stood his ground in the face of the giant worm-like beast.

Well, saying it was especially like anything was a bit of an exaggeration. Its existence seemed to be subjective, shifting between shapes and sizes the same way a liquid shifted based on its container.

At the moment, it appeared to be a sort of massive work with four mouths full of sword-like fangs, three sets of slightly mechanical looking wings, and a back end that split into two different tails.

It had shifted from a draconic bird with fishlike scales and snake eyes, a bear with insect features and glass sculpture like hairs, and several more his mind refused to recall.

Regardless, the feminine jade blood boy had managed to beat it down to low health, and it was now moving slow enough for Risura to be capable of safely attempting a new ability.

He'd used Rip before of course, but he wanted to try the power that naturally evolved from it. He grabbed at nothing-both literally and metaphorically-pulling open a void portal.

It wasn't exactly a black hole (for one thing it was an actual hole and not a sphere) but there wasn't much point in describing it as anything else as it sucked in the beast in front of him, casting it to the void, trapping it within the nothingness that lay outside the mortal world.

He panted as he closed the portal. It had been a flash of inspiration seemingly from nowhere that had allowed him to connect all the pieces.

The horror-terror lurking on his land seemed to go by the name Nyarlathotep, with various henchman scattered across the land. He had no intention of confronting the beast.

After what he'd been through the last time, he wanted nothing to do with the monster. He was off to battle his denizen, having beaten down the only obstacles in the path.

The sooner he finished off his denizen, the sooner he could get off his planet and back to Dustine; and away from the lurking dread hiding on his land.

* * *

Jeff placed the final key into the clockwork lock to finish winding the gears of the planet.

With the turn, the consorts would no longer have to drive themselves mad with worry over what time it actually was, nor would they be at risk from the randomly shifting plating and gears of their land.

Well, not that it ever actually was truly random, just set on a timetable that couldn't possibly be kept track of without minor control over the flow of time itself.

Jeff chuckled as he turned the key. He'd had to wail on the clockwork titan that had been guarding it for hours (only a few minutes in real time, but he'd still had to experience those hours of attacking with his baseball bat and it had been a pain in his time displaced ass), so it was rather satisfying to feel the key slot turn and hear the shifting of the gears beneath him as the planet finally normalized itself, returning to the way it had been before the denizen had arrived.

Speaking of the denizen… Jeff glanced outside of the clock tower and peered at what before had just been a long stretch of empty metal. Sure enough, now that the planet was back to normal, the ground had opened up and a massive mountainous lair that Jeff could only describe as a doom fortress had risen up.

The denizen was left out in the open for Jeff to face. Well, it wasn't really a choice, if Jeff didn't rush in and sort things out with the denizen in a matter of minutes, they'd go into a rampage and likely level the planet.

Jeff took a deep breath, slowing time to a crawl so he'd have time to get all the way out to the denizen's lair before his rampage.

* * *

Arvis stepped out onto the platform.

Java was standing nearby so full to bursting with the freedom breath she'd borrowed from the monsters across her land she was shaking like she'd caught hypothermia.

The gecko consorts of Arvis' land were all either barricaded in their houses, looking through the windows, or at their bravest, at the open doors with weapons in hand. They weren't bad people Arvis had learned, they were just afraid.

They were afraid like Arvis had been afraid of being found out. But unlike Arvis, the consorts had done nothing to deserve the role they'd been given, locked up in their land. It was the denizen who had made them so afraid, and it was the denizen Arvis knew he had to speak out against.

He'd assembled the speech meant to inspire the consorts from the many bosses scattered throughout the mountains, but even with the paper fully assembled, the speech was only about eighty percent done, which was still useless by itself if he couldn't find some way to finish it himself.

Arvis didn't have time to figure out how finish it, so he figured it was time to meta-game the system.

Between Java's powers, and the one's he was learning how to use, he was pretty sure they could handle this. He began to speak, which in itself was already a risk. The last time he'd made the mistake of speaking verbally in a town he'd had to escape a lynch mob. Still had the scare from where'd been stabbed with a pitchfork.

But he spoke, and spoke as loud and powerfully as he could. Trash was thrown at him first, followed by stones. After that came the actual full tilt weapons.

Thankfully Java was able to lend help with this, expending some of the breath she'd gathered into Cuttersprite and Pilotsprite, allowing them to act fully autonomously for a few minutes so they could protect Arvis from the crowd, cutting through and blowing away the things thrown or swung at Arvis without hurting any of the consorts.

The more Arvis spoke, the more consorts came out of their homes; either to hear him or to try hurting him. His words began to stray from the speech more and more as he seemed to know what to say almost instinctively, as he'd known the fear of working with the others, of letting himself be out in the open, and he knew now how important it was to overcome that fear.

New Links. It was a Page of Blood power that Arvis hadn't even realized he'd had until quite recently, allowing him to strengthen connections both literal and metaphorical.

His powers flowed into his words as he spoke. Seeing this, Java began to exhale again, releasing freedom into the consorts. The plan had originally just been for their powers to work independently; Java would free them from their fear, Arvis would bind them together.

But their powers being used in conjunction and in such close proximity for such a similar goal seemed to trigger a new ability, a shared power: Revolution.

The consorts gradually became less aggressive towards Arvis as he continued to speak, dropping the speech papers and the ability affected even him, letting him bring out more of his passion for the consorts to grow more inspired.

To seal the deal, Arvis did the unthinkable. He threatened the denizen; and did so with the denizen's name even. Armok, the denizen of Blood. No sooner had he done this was there a sound of commotion from the nearby red river, no doubt underline bosses rising in opposition to such an action.

But Arvis was not afraid, certain he and Java could fend them off. And they wouldn't be fighting alone either it seemed; the consorts letting out a battle cry and following them towards the attacking monsters.

* * *

Mutosi looked at her reflection in the mirror, wondering if she was really about to do what she thought she was about to do.

She'd brought her consorts back to their points of origin and had, as a result, been left where she'd started. From there she'd returned to her house, finding Scorpionspite hovering around the land.

Her lusus had come down and insisted on inspecting Mutosi, which was always slightly embarrassing but after the ordeal she'd been through, it was actually slightly comforting. She'd gone inside and started thinking, thinking about everything she'd said and done.

She… she still didn't think there was anything wrong with what she'd done to the consorts.

She knew that there was, she knew it was wrong, but she didn't feel it, couldn't fully believe it. For the first time in her life, she was completely unsure what to think about herself and the world. But she did know how to fix it.

She took a deep breath, gripping her broom tighter for support as she began to use her Test of Faith ability to manipulate the belief of her target. It was nearly effortless at this point; but she'd never used it on herself until now.

She grit her teeth as she felt the power grip her mind and the feelings therein, like some sort of parasite digging into her body and repurposing it. Mutosi shook as she tried to focus, forcing her own beliefs to change.

She didn't know at the time how dangerous what she was doing was, didn't know if it was a good idea even at the time, and most disturbingly to her, she didn't know if she would still be 'her' after she was done.

The thing that brought tears to her eyes though was the thought that maybe no one would care whether or not she was still her..

* * *

 **I figured I'd have one more set up chapter before the denizen encounters, don't worry, they're on their way next chapter. And yes, the combo abilities for Brendon and Valtina, and Java and Arvis, those were in fact my interpretation of Fraymotifs. It makes no sense to have moves that you buy like items, and none of the fraymotifs in Collide had been bought first, so I've decided they're just combo moves between different classpects, which makes more sense.**


	35. Chapter 35

**Strap in readers, this is gonna be a longer one than normal XD**

* * *

Brendon stepped forward towards the Maw.

The massive cave of the thickest venom filled fangs on LoFaM. Attempting to open it with any standard weapons or machines was a highway to nothing, because even if you had anything powerful enough to tunnel through it, the acid venom within would melt through it in seconds; as evident by the several piles of melted slag and the dents and scratches in the first fang in the way.

Brendon stretched out his limbs, taking a deep breath as he focused on his powers, focused on the power of doom, of the destruction of it. He routed the power through his body and into his palms, extending it beyond so it would form into the powerful ball known as a Death Bringing.

It started out the size of a marble, then began growing, passing golf ball sized and then passing baseball sized, up to basketball and bowling ball, and kept growing still until Brendon had to hold it above his head as it continued to grow; the light of it causing his shadow to stretch across the ground as the army of revived consorts watched him.

Brendon took another deep breath and sent the Death Bringing into the Maw. it seemed to move slower than it actually was, colliding with the Maw.

For a moment, it just seemed to linger there against the wall of fangs. Then it and the Maw seemed to erupt in a massive blast of light and sound, a mushroom cloud rose from the blast zone from the evaporated venom within the fangs.

The blast had destroyed more than half of the Maw in a single go, the consorts cheering Brendon on to clear the rest of the path.

He stepped closer, summoning two smaller Death Bringers, both about the size of an especially large bowling ball before being launched into the Maw. The two orbs collided and blasted the rest of the way through into the denizen's lair.

Brendon raised his axe, letting out a battle cry and kicking off the ground to lead the charge by flying overhead. He still wasn't very used to god tier flying abilities, but it was good for quick clearing of distance he supposed. He veered down into what remained of the Maw, flying through the upsettingly warm and moist cave entrance he had blasted open.

It grew more and more dark the farther down he flew until seeing a dull green light pulsing in the distance. He continued forward, leading his armor of former ghosts in to give them a rematch against the denizen. He flew out into a massive wide open underground tunnel, finding a platform battleground there waiting for him.

He handed on the center of it, looking around into the darkness around and below him as the consorts attempted to catch up.

"Show yourself!" Brendon called out into the darkness. There was a sensation of something stomach churningly vast moving around and below him, slimy scales sliding against each other. And then two large green points, presumably eyes but Brendon didn't want to assume, appeared in the darkness.

 _Welcome to my lair, Prince of Doom_. The denizen spoke in a language that didn't exist, a nonsense hiss and chortle that for reasons best known to the gods above Brendon could understand, _I am Morros, denizen of the Land of Fangs and Martyr. You have earned the right to face me._

"You really ruined this place," Brendon said, "You poisoned the land, reduced the consorts to sorrowful spirits. Why? What purpose does it serve?"

 _It serves no purpose_ , Morros replied, _They were weak, and so they perished. I am strong, and so I live. And you are the Prince of Doom, bringer of death to those who bring death. Are you strong enough I wonder? Or will you take The Choice? If so you choose, we need not battle. My mountains of grist and experience can be yours for naught but a simple favor._

Brendon glared at this. What right did this monster have to an alternate route at this point? A lot in this world could be redeemed, but this beast reduced a planet to ruins, and put measures in place specifically to keep life miserable for all involved. It deserved what it was getting.

 _I can feel your hatred, young Prince,_ Morros said with a grotesque hiss to its voice, _You wish me dead. You believe yourself strong enough to defeat me. Let's see you prove it._

Next to the first two points of light came another to. Then another two slightly below those. Then another a bit off to the left, more up and to the right.

Brendon swung his Spade Sparker to release its fire and get a look at his foe; seeing that Morros was not merely a serpent, but a hydra of dozens of heads, each sporting two glowing bright green eyes and far too many rows of powerful fangs; spikes lining its long slender serpentine form that stretched down into the blackness beneath where the many parts presumably became a single body.

The health bar of the creature could not be seen; the first boss without one.

"I don't have to prove it," Brendon said as he heard the army reaching the entrance, "Not alone anyway."

The army poured in, already beginning to take shots at the multi-headed beast with guns and bows and thrown weapons.

The first strike still came from Brendon though, two powerful shots from his Supper Shotty. It had been leveling up with his as he'd trained, and the kick of the gun along could crack through a brick wall. The shots hit one of the heads, causing all of them to hiss and begin releasing several deep purple clouds, no doubt some kind of magic toxin.

Brendon jumped up to levitate in the air, swinging his axe in a complete circle to send a ring of fire around his, causing the toxic mist to ignite in the air, burning the denizen's mouths. It hissed again as Brendon sent himself spiralling at the closest head, blade out to turn him into a living buzzsaw.

He cut through the neck, severing one of the many heads of Morros. Brendon mentally crossed his fingers and prayed that Morros didn't follow mythological hydra rules, and breathed a sigh of relief when he saw that no extra heads came sprouting from the severed stump, which simply fell to the pit below.

Before he could let himself believe it would be an easy battle though, two heads came at him, one biting into his arm and the other crunching into him at the waist.

He grit his teeth, his Death Destroyer ability preventing him from feeling much pain at all or being mortally wounded. He fired the shotgun his bitten hand was holding, blasting the head off as the other head was hit by a rocket launcher one of the consorts was holding.

Its jaw grip loosened slightly, and Brendon brought his Spade Sparker down onto its skull, cutting deep into it and causing flames to ignite along its surface. The scream of pain allowed him to wriggle free and hover in the air as he saw the chaos around him.

It wouldn't be a quick fight he thought, but if he could manifest a few good Death Bringers, there's be few casualties if any.

* * *

Arvis led his army of consorts on Armok mercilessly, and though he didn't know it, his battle was one of the strangest.

Armok was not a normal denizen, his power dependant on the number of attackers. In a one on one battle, he was weaker than the starting mid-bosses, but against an army, he easily matched the other denizens in might.

And if that army was lead by a powerful Blood player acting as a general, he was even stronger. But that power.. It was all for show. He would lose, and he knew it.

There was no such thing as losing to Armok. Either you faced Armok alone and got a pitifully easy and satisfying battle that left you feeling insulted, or you rolled in with an army, having succeeded in your challenge and The Choice, and were rewarded with what seemed like a climactic and dramatic battle.

Not that Armok was throwing the match mind you. As the consorts surrounded him and Arvis flew at him with hook swords raised, he was fighting with all of his might. But he was destined to fail. Just as Arvis was now destined to win.

Hooks cut and tore through Armok's scales as the consorts attacked from below, blades and bombs hacking and blasting at the body of the beast.

Any time a consort grew panicked, his New Links power kept them going. When they took physical damage, his Transfusion power them from bleeding out. The battle was over the moment it started, Arvis not even knowing it.

He flew up as high into the air as he could without leaving his planets atmosphere, the consorts keeping the beast distracted from him as he began to fly down towards the denizen. Arvis actually broke the sound barrier on his way down before his hooks collided with Armok.

The impact carved the denizen in two. As the two pieces separated, they seemed to lose their organic structure, solidifying into stone instantly and collapsing in a heap of rubble rather than gore. Arvis stood triumphantly atop the the pile, raising one hook up into the air and letting out a cheer that the consorts carried and returned.

They charged into Armok's lair to claim their prize, Arvis already eager to tell Java about the epic battle.

* * *

Aspico was rather taken aback by the sight of Sophia.

Her denizen was no kind of monstrous beast that she had been expecting.

Far from it she was.. Beautiful.

Enormous mind you, if she were hollow she could be repurposed as an apartment complex, but at least from the waist up she was perhaps the most beautiful woman Aspico had ever seen in her life; which she did not say lightly.

What she was from the waist down, the olive blood wasn't certain, but as Sophia spoke to her, so charming and polite, slightly teasing but never mean or overly suggestive, Aspico found herself not minding what was below.

But the longer she spoke, the more something nagged at Aspico. She kept getting the urge to activate her soul sight, but she kept getting distracted by Sophia's words.

No, she realized, she needed to check. She managed to find a lull in the conversation-though it was one she had to force-and activated her soul sight. Immediately she realized what her senses had been trying to tell her.

First of all, the calming, pleasant aura that Sophia seemed to give off was just that; and aura, a magical glow that allowed her to seem charming without actually being it. She could say whatever it wanted and the aura would filter it for whoever was listening.

In addition to that, there was a shocking amount of soul energy circulated not just within Sophia, but outside of her, like an armor, or a combat avatar.

Said avatar Aspico didn't see quick enough to avoid being struck with it, being thrown across the stone chamber by the impact. She crashed into the wall, drawing her rapier and glaring, face flushed with embarrassment.

 _It's troubling for a Hero of Heart to have feelings turned against them,_ Sophia said casually, _And troubling still to get the best of a Seer._

Aspico stood, ignoring the throbbing pain the powerful first impact had left in her leg. "You need not be troubled any longer." She said with a glare.

She had been considering attempting to resolve this peacefully when she entered this cave, but no. This conniver needed to be put in her place.

* * *

Furlok popped her knuckles, then moved down and placed her hands on the ground.

She focused, knowing she needed to get this right the first time. She began to steal from the market. Its size and distance. Given that it took up about half the fucking planet, this made it by far and away the largest thing Furlok had even considered stealing from. It shrunk down as she grew larger and larger, becoming a titan over them.

The consorts within the market panicked at the sight, as from their perspective she was just growing, but they'd realize what she'd done for them later.

She had to stop for a moment once she had reached roughly the size of a fucking mountain range stacked on its side. She turned to the crash sight of Echidna, a trip that would have taken days on foot or hours in the air taking her about a step and a half at this size.

She reached down and grabbed the massive chunk of rock containing the denizen, placing her foot at the edge of the market as she held the denizen meteor in one hand and held it up above her head.

She could already feel the shifting of Echidna being disturbed by the movement. If Echidna woke fully and started attacking while she was off guard, then even at this titanic julton size Furlok would no doubt be killed.

She used her foot to continue stealing ize, shrinking the market further as she grew even taller. She pushed passed the clouds and soon her hand was poking out of the atmosphere.

She had to get up on her tiptoes, but managed to place Echidna back on her native space object and even pushed said object a bit higher up in orbit to prevent it breaking apart again.

She managed to do it before Echidna got her narc on thankfully, leaving Furlok with only the question of how to fight her now. When she looked at her items though, she realized she wouldn't have to.

The amount of grist that had been given to her… it was insane, it was several times more than she'd have had if she diligently hunted all the underlings on her planet to extinction.

As she looked up at the orbiting rock that held Echidna, she realized that this was her thank you, a sort of bypassing of the battle.

Well, that was how she interpreted it anyway. In truth, the Thief of Space had unknowingly accepted and completed The Choice without even knowing it as well.

* * *

Dustine had eventually managed to flush out the denizen's palace by way of having as many moats as possible moved out of the way, letting the mucky water flow through LoMaW and pour into all the hidden nooks and crannies, forcing the temple up out of the depths where it was hidden.

He immediately made a powerful charge towards the palace letting his rage energy flow around and through him and his weapon. As he passed through the doorway, learning the name of the denizen, Lyssa, from the carvings on the temple, he whispered a prayer to the mirthfuls for safety, power, and fucking wickedness.

By the time he entered the steel trap that was Lyssa's lair, he was glowing so intensely purple that he could hear the ground beneath him steaming and it was melted away by the energy circulating through him.

He'd told himself he wouldn't let himself go this deep into his Fortitude rage state, as he worried he would grow a bit addicted to it if he did, but he figured he would allow himself one more, wicked mother fucking murder rampage so he could bring this entire fucking temple down on top of Lyssa before he could get out a word in edgewise.

* * *

Patior looked up at Metus, the denizen of Mind, with confusion in his eyes. "What do you mean we don't need to fight?"

 _The Choice was accepted, a logical mind rendered emotional, confessions made, the true seen_, Metis said in the denizen's otherworldly language, _There is no need for us to battle. Take the grist horde, and prepare for the grander battles to come, Mage of Mind._

Patior was speechless at this. Surely he'd not done anything that great. All he'd done was realize the mistakes he had made in the past and endeavored to fix them.

Granted it had been a long painful practice to figure this out and a tense, heart pounding experience begging for forgiveness, but here the game was telling him that that was all he'd needed to do in the first place.

He kept his sniper rifle's bayonet point up just in case this proved to be a trap, not it seemed that Metus had been dead serious, and within moments Patior had gathered more grist than any of their planets could have produced.

* * *

Lurabo had already known Cetus' name and indeed her image before entering her castle.

She'd not expecting to have so much confidence coming in against her denizen, but between ehr three weapons, her telekinesis, her new luck powers, her excitement over her potential ashen prospects after this and the calming words from her kind-of sort-of moirale, she was on a confidence high and she intended to ride it straight to victory.

When Cetus started speaking, she made a genuine effort to listen, as she figured that any info from such a powerful being would have to be important. But Cetus just droned on and on and on about seemingly nothing, talking in circles and repeating each point three times over before she was satisfied with it.

A pre-emptive strike was both necessary and deserved at this point. Lurabo took out her weaponized playing card deck.

She squeezed the top and bottom of the deck together to fire off each card in the Slicer Suite deck into the air like a magician fucking up a card trick.

But as the cards fluttered through the air, Lurabo's telekinesis gripped the cards, pinning them in place and then changing their movement, pointing their bladed edges at Cetus before a flick of her wrist send all fifty-two cards flying at her like a controlled swarm.

Cetus was caught off guard, still in the midsts of her speech as she was attacked by the cards, each card leaving a cut as they went passed. Lurabo began to move her hands, directing the cards to keep them swarming around Cetus, spinning and slashing and cutting.

She steered them all up to the roof of he ceiling above Cetus, and then brought her hand down to bring the entire deck down. The cards dug themselves into Cetus' flesh, remaining stuck inside.

Glaring at Lurabo, Cetus' eyes released a powerful sun-shaped bolt that she blocked and directe away from herself with her Arcane, the magical staff glowing with power. Cetus fired a beam from her eyes that the Arcane's magic blast countered.

The two blasts seemed to be evenly matched, until Lurabo added her own telekinesis to the mix, her blast beginning to push Cetus' back towards her face until the denizen was being blasted.

Lurabo swung the Arcane several times, sending multiple bolts of magic into the denizen's body, but could see that the serpent was charging up a more powerful attack, one that the cane would be unable to block. She switched to her tarot cards and drew, taking out the Wheel of Fortune.

The probability tampering effects of the card caused the ceiling of the denizen's lair to fall in on Cetus, landing on her and causing her powerful attack to backfire on herself. Lurabo drew again, getting the Tower.

The card identified Cetus herself as the targeted structure to be ground down, and several small explosions triggered across her body to prevent her attacking. Seeing the Light denizen was still up somehow, Lurabo decided to take a risk.

She activated her luck powers, letting it flow around and through her before drawing not one, not two, but three tarot cards at once.

Ten of Wands, Two of Cups, and the Knight of Swords.

Pain and failure mixed with defeat and and victory, all held together by cooperation and friendship to direct the raw magical power at Cetus, blasting her like a bolt from the gods.

Cetus let out a shriek that was cut off abruptly as she was reduced to stone and began to crumble, leaving the path to the grist horde open.

Lurabo smiled, collected her playing cards and giddily reaping the spoils.

* * *

Mutosi had found Abraxas name in her studies in the camel consort cathedrals.

It shocked her to know the denizen of her land had had its name just.. there, right in a book she would have been able to read within minutes of reaching her land if she'd just been willing to actually read the books she'd found rather than just deciding the consorts were wrong and starting to lock their minds in her grip.

She still couldn't believe how misguided she'd been back then. She didn't know why she hadn't changed her mind-literally-sooner. With her research done, she headed out on her own to where she was sure the denizen would be. She found the old run down temple guarded by a swarm of angels.

She'd read about them to in the consort's books.

All Hope player lands had angels, and they were often unfriendly. They shrieked down at Mutosi and flew down to attack her.

She lifted her broom, using her Hope Bend power to change the hope power within them, converting it from energy into ice crystals and causing all of them to freeze over, becoming instant frozen sculptures.

She headed inside, meeting no resistance that took more than a single strike to defeat. And then she found the final room, containing the several stories high green and white serpent within; Abraxas, the denizen of hope.

"I'm here to do battle." She declared, but to her surprised, Abraxas did not attack her. Rather, the denizen slithered out of her way, leaving the path to the massive grist horde open to her. "You.. don't want to fight?" She asked.

 _There is no need,_ Abraxas said, _The Choice has been fulfilled, Mutosi rended from the world, replaced with a newer, stronger Witch of Hope to live in her place._

Mutosi wasn't sure what Abraxas meant by that. How could Mutosi be gone when she was standing right there? She decided not to think about it and focus on gathering the grist. She'd probably have the record for getting passed the denizen she supposed.

* * *

Risura had found the name of the denizen before the entrance to their lair; Nyx.

Supposedly she was a rather calm and passive denizen, one who hadn't so much brought monsters and danger to the land she was on so much as she'd simply allowed another to do so.

Nyarlathotep was the one responsible for the madness of the consorts, for the twisted beings that stalked the long grass outside the towns, the voices and laugher and screams that filled the air.

Nyx brought the underlings sure, but unlike on the other planets, Nyx's underlings weren't attacking the consorts or the towns; Nyarlathotep's influence had been entirely responsible for their state. It was a raw deal they'd gotten.

Risura didn't like the idea of leaving them as they were, nor of beating to death a being who's only crime was being unaware or unprepared for the otherworldly invaders, but that was how this game was played it seemed.

The jade blood checked all of his gear before heading into Nyx's palace; checking again at the urging from his lusus, who seemed to grow more anxious the closer to the palace he got.

His had his fully upgraded god tier outfit, alchemized with a stealth cloak and with his healing garments so it would provide a healing factor and boosted stealth. He had bandages around his fists to keep him from damaging his hands too much.

His highly alchemized flashlight that not only produced light but allowed the user to shape it into other things, and of course, his old religious book. He chuckled as he looked over it.

He'd read it again recently, realizing for the first time how similar it was to Dustine's mirthful messiah beliefs.

It was, in fact, a mythology that had been specifically based on the mirthful beliefs of the purple bloods, combining it with angels and with a smidgen of science to fill in the gaps.

The end result was a custom made religious that Risura still couldn't help but pray to even though by all rational thoughts, it should have been disproven by the knowledge that it was nothing but an amalgam of other faiths.

He shook his head, knowing he was stalling. He took a deep breath, gave a nod to his lusus, and took off into the palace. The walls were long and carved from the same purple material that Derse seemed to be sculpted out of.

Risura hurried through the halls and down flights of stairs, his jade blood glow letting him see just enough to prevent himself getting lost or running into anything without creating enough to alert anyone to his presence. He reached the throne room, gritting his teeth as he embraced and activated his Bard of Void power, Forget Me Not, to pass through the door without opening it; silent, invisible, and intangible.

The room he entered was truly dark. No light of any kind save for the dull glow Risura's skin let off. And then, the purple eyes of the denizen looking down at him. Her long, serpentine body was coiled around a massive pillar, her bizarrely human head looking down at him.

 _I know you are here, Bard of Void,_ Nyx said, speaking in a language that Risura someone understood despite being nonexistent, _It is quite the accomplishment to have made it this far._

"I'm a tough one to keep down." He said, not letting any of his nervousness into his voice.

 _You bare no ill will towards me,_ Nyx said, her long body shifting along the pillar as her top began to move slowly down towards the floor where Risura stood, _You need the treasures I keep. You wish not to fight._

"Perhaps not," Risura said, putting his fists up incase she tried for a sneak attack, "But I understand that sometimes that's just how it goes."

 _But what if it does not have to?_ Nyx questions, _If you wish not to fight, there is another way to pass me. The Choice, a challenge of high stakes, can suffice for a battle between us._

"The Choice.. What is this choice?" Risura questioned skeptically.

 _Your choice is simple. You may remain here and fight me, and be certain to succeed. Or you may fight another, one much stronger, much eviller. If the latter, you risk your failure. If the former, you risk leaving a being of such malice alive, leaving it to potentially rise to power, to follow you and your friends into your new world and do to them as it did you to._

"Nyarlathotep..." Risura said, his jade blood beginning to run cold as the name passed through his lips, "You want me to fight the horror-terror."

 _I want for nothing,_ Nyx clarified, _But it is an alternative. If it is a battle with me you wish, I will accept. But if, for the sake of your friends, and your lovers both red and black, you may face the Thing in the Yellow Mask._

Risura's fists clenched tighter at these words. He hadn't ever planned on fighting the beast, but then… he'd never considered that it would be capable of following him out of this world, of hurting his friends, of hurting Dustine and Mutosi…

Risura held still for several moments, perhaps entire minutes, trying to force himself to begin a battle with Nyx, trying to make himself throw a punch, or run away, or do anything other than what he of course ended up doing.

"I will battle Nyarlathotep." He said, his voice betraying his fear.

 _Any normal being would be unable to kill it, even if of greater power,_ Nyx said, _But as you walk as a god, you will be at least capable of victory; so long as you battle it within the Void._ Nyx eyes closed for a moment, and when they opened, so to did a door of pure blackness in front of Risura, hardly taller or wider than his own body. His body was, unsurprisingly, frozen for several moments as he stared at the door, but not as long as he'd have liked it to be, and soon his found himself moving towards the door.

 _Best of luck, Bard of Void._ Were the last words Risura heard from Nyx before stepping through the door and into the Void. the entrance was gone the instant he passed through it, leaving Risura stranded in an infinity of empty. It wasn't darkness or shadow, it wasn't blackness.

It was nothing. Pure and entire nothing. Risura suspected that if he were not a god tier, specifically a Void player god tier, he would likely be dead simply from being present in this realm.

But it wasn't the infinity of nil that made Risura feel sick to his stomach.

No, that was coming from the impossibly massive entity he could feel. In front of him, around him, above him; its size couldn't be properly comprehended, and its shape was likely a hypothetical at best.

Risura couldn't see it in the midst of the oblivion that was the Void, and quite frankly he thanked the fake deities within his book for this. Just hearing it had driven him into possessed madness last time, and while his new strength could likely protect him from this, seeing it would likely be too much.

Almost funnily, the words it spoke it were closer to language than Nyx's, and could still be understood; though Risura suspected this was only because it chose it to be so.

"Ah, my puppet has returned to its master. Shall we continue where we left off before?"

Risura gave no verbal responses, simply activating his powers immediately. Forget Me Not shrouded him, though Nyarlathotep would still be able to find him with some searching. It was hard to deceive one who's entire existence was deception.

Risura expected his Rip attack to be less powerful here considering he was already in the Void and couldn't exactly cast anything away to it; but far from it. While used within the Void, the Rip attack was actually much, much stronger.

The Void moved around it, becoming a weapon just as Mutosi did with hope and Dustine with rage. As he lashed out with his fists, projectiles of Void were fired at the formless form of his target. Laughter was what followed as Nyarlathotep simply braced through the attack. It could have left the being half dead or done no damage at all for all Risura knew, Nyarlathotep was not one to show their land.

"You wish to play do you?" Risura was grabbed. With what, he didn't know, and for his own sanity he couldn't even venture a guess. But he was grabbed nonetheless, yanked up and slammed into something; possibly the body of Nyarlathotep. He felt himself being constricted, crushed as easily as he himself might ruin a sand castle, only still in one piece so Nyarlathotep could speak.

"I have faced dozens of beings young Bard, I have many great enemies I am yet to slay. I am in no way about to be brought to my knees by an ant who's convinced himself he is a god."

It was those words that saved Risura's life. It hadn't been entirely Nyarlathotep's own power that had let it possess Risura. Risura had been all but asking for it. Laughing in the Dark; Risura's strongest power as Bard of Void.

It allowed him to voluntarily induce possession of himself by other beings as a sort of do or die lat resort. He'd accidentally activated it while within the cave, and Nyarlathotep had capitalized on it.

But now that he knew.. Now that he could do something about what was happening, maybe… just maybe he would be able to control himself.

He closed his eyes, hoping it looked to Nyarlathotep like he was accepting his fate as he invited other horror-terrors, invited those who Nyarlathotep wished to hide from to one day slay, those it feared, into his body and mind.

His vision became a swirling mass of flesh and angles that shattered his perceptions of logic as his ears were filled with screams and words never meant to be thought let alone spoken alone, all mixing together and overlaying as his body became a vessel, host for powerful beings.

Too late Nyarlathotep realized his mistake as Risura's jade blooded glow grew to the brightest of a massive star, swirling colors and illusions emanating from it. His body remained in tact, but appeared to be held together by stubborn will alone as the power within threatened to rend its host.

Risura forced himself to keep conscious; just lucid enough to enjoy the sweet, sweet revenge.

* * *

Jeff had spent so long talking to Hephaestus that he'd forgotten the seventy foot high fire serpent was his denizen, and enemy he was meant to battle.

He wasn't sure why exactly they weren't fighting, nor what had started the conversation, but they'd gone from discussing mythos to history, to social science to romantic quadrants, to their current topic of warfare.

 _Speaking of, you may wish to set yourself a reminder._ Hephaestus said, _You seem not to remember that you already came here. I told the future you that you'd already completed The Choice while forming your multi-species consort to preserve their genetic data. You already have the grist, and even received a more powerful bat from my armory._

"I did? Woah.. I really do need to set a reminder for that." Jeff said, caught off guard by this. He definitely couldn't think of any reason why he would have needed to come back in time and take care of it later.

Unless.. Unless it had been a version of him from an alternate timeline, a doomed version coming to his aid to prevent him forgetting or fighting or otherwise doing something stupid.

He didn't like to think it would have been that likely for him to do so, but he supposed it had been *him* who'd felt it necessary.

* * *

Valtina was caught off guard when Hemera, the denizen of Life, refused to fight her.

 _There is no point in us fighting_. Hemera said calmly.

"What do you mean?" Valtina questioned, "You're my denizen. You're supposed to fight me, or at least give me some kind of challenge right?"

 _This is normally the task of the denizen, yes,_ Hemera confirmed, _And indeed there are no doubt timelines were you take The Choice or battle me bloodily, be it successful or not, But here, now, there is no point._

"And why is that exactly?" Valtina questioned, frustrated and fearful that she'd somehow done something to break her session.

 _Because if we battle, you will die_ , Hemera said matter-of-factly, _You are not weak Sylph of Life, not close to it in fact. But you haven't got it in you to bring harm to someone you feel may be innocent. Not after the ordeal with the Prince and Mage. And you know by now that I'm no more at fault for the troubles of this land than you heroes are for the meteors that rained down on the planet you hail from. If we fight, you will hesitate. I will not, and you will die. You session will fail because of your death. It would be senseless._

Valtina wanted to argue, but she knew full well that this was indeed likely to be the case. "Alright.. Well, why not the Choice or whatever you called it?"

 _There are no choices for you to make_ , Hemera said with a shake of her head, _You have healed the entire planet, healed the heart of your moirale and restored the lives of countless. You have faced your mortality and the mortality of others. You understand and work with life as a spellcaster works with magic. There are no choices to make._

"Then what am I supposed to do!?" Valtina questioned, growing more and more pissed off by the idea that she'd fucked over her session by being too good at it.

There was a long silence as Hemera thought, and then her large body lowered down to be closer to head on with Valtina, _Stay with me for tea_ , Hemera said, _It's so rare that I have company._

* * *

Java knew full well she could fly without a plane, but she was a pilot dammit and she wouldn't be caught dead arriving at the palace of her land's denizen without a proper plane to escort her there.

Plus a plane would bring her there faster after all, she could only fly so fast and she was fairly certain the plane that she'd borrowed from the consorts (franlly they were all but begging her to take the thing away from them after so long trapped within it) moved faster.

Granted, there was the thought that if she took a little breath she'd probably be able to fly even faster, but she hushed that thought.

She wasn't in any rush to get to her denizen, and she didn't want to disappoint Pilotsprite; and not just because she was hoping her beautiful sprite girl would be willing to give her a little reward that she could share with Arvis to celebrate when they both beat their denizens.

She had already made a few choice comments to that effect. Pilotsprite sat behind Java as she flew the plane towards the denizen, Typheus, dwelling.

She complimented her on her skill, unable to help the praise what with being composed of a program designed to teach such things.

She wanted to return the praise, knowing that if it weren't for Pilotsprite's comfort, both verbal and.. Well.. 'physical,' she wouldn't have made it this far.

But here she was, flying to a boss that would terrify most with a smile on her face. She brought them down for a smooth landing that left them right up at Typheus' front door. Java jumped out of the plane, Pilotsprite floating out after her and reaching the door.

She bounced on her feet and reeled back, striking the door with her brass knuckle braced fist. The impact forced the door open violently.

She floated through with Pilotsprite, her feet just barely grazing the floor as she reached the much larger, thicker stone door that led to the denizen.

For this she asked for Pilotsprite's help, and together they opened the door and found the large domed arena. Java stretched out her limbs as she lifted her fists, her brass knuckles gleaming in the dull light.

When she reached the center of the room, the door shut by itself, sliding closed as the massive, green serpentine figure of Typheus descended from above. Java felt a twinge of worry, knowing that Pilotsprite wouldn't be able to help her fight this time. At least she'd be there for support, and that alone kept Java from being too afraid.

 _Rogue of Breath… you have come to challenge me?_

Java nodded, floating up to be eye level with her foe, "I'm ready to bring you down."

 _We may fight if you wish, and you may succeed_ , Typheus said, _But even victory over me may leave you with failure._

"What are you on about?" Java questioned, eyes narrowed at the giant serpent, unsure how she was able to understand what was being said despite the unfamiliar, impossible language.

 _As I am sure you know, we denizens are not the final challenge of this world. There is another, a king who reigns over Derse, who seeks to reign over Skaia; even if it means destroying it in the process. You may claim victory over me. But can you twelve truly claim victory over a king who may bring the sky itself down on top of you?_

"What are you getting at?" Java questioned.

 _There is a way to take the grist I hide, a way that requires no combat, and will bring you all the Breath you need to even the odds in the final battle. It is your choice to make. You need only drain the breath completely from the one who first showed you how to fly._

Java was silent for a moment, trying to sort through what the denizen had said. When the words' meanings came to her, her eyes widened in shock and she gasped.

"No, no, no, no, no!" She said, sounding more than just surprised, but offended, "I'm not hurting Pilot, how fucking dare you!"

 _It is merely a choice, one of many. Heroes of Breath of known to love having many options. I believed you would not mind knowing. Especially considering that without her Breath, your chances of surviving the final encounter are not nearly as high._

"Java," Pilotsprite said softly, Java turning to her. She opened her mouth to let her know she didn't have to worry, to tell her that she wasn't going to listen to this denizen and his lies.

But Pilotsprite placed a finger to her mouth, a sad, but determined look in her eyes. Java felt her stomach churn at the realization that Pilotsprite wasn't worried that Java would go for it, she was worried that she wouldn't.

"Pilot.. No." She said, all the power gone from her words.

"Java.. I can remember every flying session you took me on back in that simulation tutor machine of yours," Pilotsprite said, "I was just a program then, no thoughts of my own. But looking back and remembering it.. I watched you grow, watched you change and become a powerful, smart, skilled young women. I'm proud, as proud as any teacher could be. But.."

Pilotsprite tried and failed not to get choked up as she spoke, knowing that it would only make it harder to convince Java if she did but still unable to keep it in, "But you don't need a teacher anymore.."

She continued, "In addition to being your teacher, I'm also your sprite. More than that I'm your friend, and.. Maybe more than that. And from all of that, I want to be able to help you. But there's only one way I can help you now.. And now that you've got Arvis.. You don't need me for 'that' either. You don't need my anymore Java, not for anything. Expect this."

Pilotsprite took Java's hands and held them against her own, tears welling up in both of their eyes, "Please.. I'm begging you.. Let me help one last time."

Java wanted to argue, wanted to scream and shout and find a way around this problem.. But she couldn't. Before she could try, or sob for that matter, she felt Pilotsprite's lips press against her own. Java let herself relish the kiss for a few sweet moments before she began to inhale, draining the sprite of her breath.

Possibly because she was a pilot, she had a shocking amount of breath inside her, more than all of the enemies on her land combined. She'd never have been able to take this much all at once, and if she tried to gather it patiently from all the lands, she'd probably burst while traveling.

Still did still nearly burst though, from the look in Pilotsprite's eyes as the light within them faded, the adventurous spirit within her dying.

* * *

 **Sorry if you felt like some of these were a bit short or underwhelming, but I think it was worth noting that in Homestuck we only see about 4 denizen encounters, only one of which contained an actual fight, and one of which was literally just Nyx telling Roxy 'oi mate go find John.' And nothing else at all XD**


	36. Chapter 36

**[OmniPale and ExpertofExperts have opened a new memo].**

 **OP: Alright, it seems we all survived our denizen encounters, that's good. So look alive everyone, we're in the home stretch here people.**

 **EE: As it stands, aside from the final boss, we've got four primary tasks left: disrupting the Derse soldiers, retrieving the rings from the Black and White queens, and most importantly, the completion of the Genesis Frog. I'm sorry Furlok, but no, you are not actually done.**

 **OP: From our research, the best job for battling the Derse at the moment would be a team of Brendon, Risura, and Dustine; our three heaviest brawlers. Any objections here?**

 **FS: Not from me.**

 **LS: I need a bit of time to sleep that fucking fight off, but I'm good with it.**

 **CD: I'll stay with you for it, but yeah I'm fine with that to.**

 **EE: We haven't got time for that I'm afraid, we're on a time sensitive mission here. The Black King's Reckoning ability could destroy all of Skaia if we take too long, and if it wasn't clear we kind of need Skaia.**

 **LS: Well FML, alright, once more into the breach I guess.**

 **SI: Don't worry, me and Dustine will both stay with you after the fighting and help you calm down alright? Speaking of, where am I?**

 **OP: You're heading to the White Queen with me and Arvis. Between your luck, his charisma, and my soul sight, we're the best team for convincing.**

 **PP: Who's helping me with the frogs?**

 **EE: That'll be Java and Jeff. Her Rogue abilities will work well with your Thief powers, and Jeff's time abilities will make it a cake walk. That leaves me, Mutosi, and Valtina on duty for the Black Queen; me for strategy,**

 **Mutosi for altering our target's beliefs, and Valtina for making sure none of us die (or stay dead) in the process.**

 **PN: Makes sense to me.**

 **MW: Seems a bit cruel, but I guess it has to be done. I'll change her back once she doesn't have the ring anymore and can't hurt us.**

 **EE: Wasn't expecting that from you.. But whatever, fucking take her out dancing for all it matters just so long as it's after we have the ring.**

 **OP: What an elegant analogy.**

 **EE: What an original response.**

 **PN: Wow, I take it you two found your way back into a certain dark corner~**

 **OP: I'm sure I don't know what you're on about.**

 **PN: XP**

 **EE: In any event, if everyone is clear on the plan going forward, then let's cut the shit and get down to it.**

* * *

Ecto-biology was boring as shit, Furlok concluded.

It was slightly more interesting now that frogs wasn't the only thing she was working with. While Jeff and Java collected the remaining ingredient-some extremely powerful cosmic frog that evidently would absolutely require time travel to capture-Furlok was tasked with creating a stable timeloop.

She couldn't help but think this had to be the time player's job, but Furlok was the only one familiar with the machinery, and even with Jeff's time fuckery they didn't have any time for him to learn. Apparently Furlok would need to create timeclones of herself and the other players in the session.

Why they needed timeclones of themselves, she wasn't sure. That is, until the screen connected to the machines flickered on, showing her the targets she was capturing the paradox goo of. It started with Brendon, showing her little baby Brendon in his father's arms.

From the besuited look he had, the man looked like a mafioso; which she supposed explained his fascination on them. She wondered why he had never mentioned him before; until she saw the dark car roll up behind them.

Three other men in suits stepped out, all three opening fire with guns. The man never stood a chance, nor did Brendon; the bullets ripping them both to pieces. They collapsed to the ground, the men getting back in the car and driving off.

The machine switched next to Patior, showing the incident that had killed his lusus and resulted in him needing a robotic one.

It turned out, Patior had not survived the incident like he thought. He to was killed by the cave in at the Mothergrub brooding cavern. Her eyes widened more and more with each new member of the session. All of them had died, every single one.

Mutosi was flattened as a grub by a demented purple blood. Arvis was left in an orphanage that burned to the ground. Jeff's home was hit by a meteor. Furlok herself had accidentally gotten into human paint and started drinking it.

And so on, and so on.

None of them had survived. With each new invent from the past, the machine copied the baby versions of the session members and produced timeclone goo with a few pushes of a button from Furlok. A little more working with the machine turned the goo into clones of themselves as babies/grubs.

Finally, the machine sent them all back in time to replace the dead versions of themselves. Time clone baby Brendon was found by the authorities, having taken his father's hat and placed it on his head.

Time clone grub Patior was found by a tall man with blonde hair and wicked sharp shades; one who evidently was good with robots, and returned with a robotic lusus to take care of him. And so on and so on.

Furlok had turned the machine off by the time Java and Jeff returned with the magic looking multi-colored glowing frog. When they asked her why she looked so in shock and was sweating so much, she told them nothing.

* * *

Derse was not prepared for the surprise attack. Not at all.

They were busy getting all their weaponry loaded up onto a ship to be sent to Skaia. If said supplies was allowed to be brought to Skaia, it would make the final battle even more of a fuckign slog than it was already going to be.

The solution? Wreck the shit while it was still on in containment crates. The fact that so much of it was easy to detonate made the job much easier.

One Doom Bringer fired at one ship caused a chain reaction of explosions that took out nearly a fifth of the supplies they were trying to stop and coincidentally all the Derse warriors that would have been defending them.

The others began charging in that direction to fight, not seeming to process that it had been a distance attack and could have come from anywhere.

Dustine, his purple rage Fortitude aura around himself and his mace, slammed down onto a Derise warship.

The impact alone cratored the machine around him, and the following strikes of the mace against the ship broke through it and dropped him into the ship, where he proceeded to rip apart the soldiers inside before they could fill him with bullets or burn through him with lasers.

Risura drove his fist into the center of the building with Rip, creating a void hole that began to draw things in towards it suck them in.

A large Dersite soldier in thick armor carrying a halberd approached Risura from behind, getting his head blown off by Brendon's Super Shotty; his Spade Sparker whirling through the air and hitting a missile stockpile; its blackrom fueled flames set off the explosives and they began triggering the explosives around them and so on and so on.

Dustine leapt across the machines that were active, crushing them with his mace before landing next to Brendon and Risura, all three keeping their powers active.

 _Destructionx2 + Rage*Doom(Void) + Exploit = Onslaught._

* * *

Prospit wasn't looking as good as Aspico remembered as she, Arvis, and Lurabo walked through the golden streets.

The spires and walls of the light kingdom had been busted up and broken in several places; directly fired bombs and attacks from Derse. There likely wouldn't be any further attacks coming out this far anymore, all the resources going to Skaia for the real battle.

The same was true here on Prospit, all of Prospitans sending themselves and their resources off to Skaia to aid the White King is his battle against the Black King in the most impressive and shockingly destructive game of three dimensional chess in the multiverse. Aspico sighed unhappily at the knowledge that no matter what happened, no matter how fast they were or how strong they became, they wouldn't be able to save the White King.

He was fated to fail, to fall in battle as he used all of his power to hold off the Black King's Reckoning ability for as long as possible. Aspico had known it was inevitable even before reading the confirmation of such do to her soul predictions.

She'd scanned the future with her powers, and she'd seen the White King's soul waning more and more until it was finally snuffed out. It would be a valiant battle, one that no surviving creature would see. The trio came to a halt outside the castle where the White Queen was residing.

They took a deep breath as Lurabo began to create luck, releasing it in a bubble around them. After letting it wash over them for a few minutes, they headed inside of the castle and made a beeline for the throne room.

Even the guards were gone to Skaia now, leaving the queen completely alone. The players eyes widen when they saw the form the ring had given her.

She looked… it was hard to say.

Lurabo searched for a word that combined monstrous and elegant, though with the Light aura coming off around her with several words that could hold some borderline relevance; awesome in its original meaning, awe-inspiring, and perhaps most aptly, overwhelming.

It was only through proximity to Lurabo's aura that Arvis managed to keep his calm and activate his New Link ability, forming a connection between them to the White Queen before Aspico and Lurabo combined their powers, sharing Aspico's ability to see into people's souls to know what exactly to say to them, Arvis' automatic relationship power, Lurabo's luck, and most importantly according to Aspico, Lurabo's speaking skills.

The yellow blood had been shocked to hear that both Patior and Aspico seemed to think she was the best choice to do the actual talking to the queen. She knew her name online was SpeakerofInterest, but it was at least partially ironically and mostly in reference to her tarot readings.

But they seemed intent that it had to be her to convinced the White Queen. She spoke as passionately as she could, explaining why they needed the ring, and promising even to take her and as many carapacians through to the new world as they could if they won.

She was shocked when the White Queen's form shifted from its monstrous body to a the truly beautiful woman with her ring removed. Silently, with an expression on her face as though she'd already agreed before they'd even arrived, she walked over and placed the ring in Lurabo's hand.

She looked down at it, then back up at the queen, then to her two teammates, expecting them to be just as shocked; only to be more shocked when they weren't.

* * *

Patior arrived on Derse first, setting up his sniper position in a tower far off from the Black Queen.

To anyone else, it would be a completely worthless position, but using a combination of blue blooded focus and Mage of Mind Process ability, he was able to perfectly plot out where to fire to make this position the best spot to land a headshot on the queen.

Of course, landing a headshot on her in the horrifying form she was in currently would be worthless. She'd just sweep the bullet off her skin and then coldly activate the Red Miles, not just killing but outright destroying Patior in a matter of seconds. This needed to be done with perfect timing.

They had only had a three second margin of error, and if a single second beyond that was spent on anything at all other than Valtina healing Mutosi, they would be doomed.

The two of them together fought their way through the guards protecting the castle and got inside the castle. Mutosi would only have a few moments to use her Test of Faith ability.

She'd only be able to hold it for a few minutes on someone like the Black Queen, which if they really hauled ass should get them far enough away Patior hoped.

His grip on the sniper rifle tightened as he looked through the scope, waiting for the signal. Just as he began to fear he wouldn't ever see it, the light of the Black Queen's hope being redirected into the air like a projectile.

Patior fired, mentally picturing the tail of the bullet as it sailed through the air, bouncing three times off of curved surfaces in about 3/4ths of a second before plowing into the Black Queen's skull precisely the moment she realized she'd been tricked but before she was able to call for the guards help.

Hopefully at least, Patior wouldn't know if it had worked until he met back with the others.

* * *

 **No, you will not be getting a description of the form granted by the prototyping until the King battle XP I wanna keep things dramatic. Even though you can probably already kind of speculate based on the sprites, lol.**


	37. Chapter 37

Brendon and Furlok couldn't accomplish much with training at this point, having unlocked all their powers to the fullest extend.

This left only their items and their natural physicality. Jeff may have been holding time from going forward to give everyone a little extra time to prepare, but it would only be for a few days as far as they were aware, the Heir of Time stretching the minutes into hours to safely give them time without risking the Black King completely destroying Skaia before they could fight him and his army.

Furlok had brought the tadpole that would soon, with any luck, be the Genesis Frog to The Forge-a massive volcano that served as a single purpose alchemiter for creating a new world-and let the little glowing larval frog fall into the magma below.

It was completely unharmed by the heat and lack of water, but would remain in tadpole form until such a time as the rings from the two queens were placed inside as well to start the process.

This couldn't be done yet though, not until the king was driven off and a hole to the core of Skaia was dug; which Risura should have been taking care of already.

In the meantime, the two kismesis-who'd firmly worked their way back into the shiny black quadrant once again-resisted the urge to beat the hell out of each other, fuck themselves into a stupor, or both, and focused on getting their weapons up to date; their sprites giving them a few suggestions.

* * *

Patior was sitting with his lusus. The mechanized caretaker made wonderful tea.

Well, he made wonderful most things and had already alchemized Patior's gear as far as it would be capable of going without dipping into the grist reserves received from the denizen, all of which had already been drained into the Forge for the creation of the new world they would receive if they won the battle against the Black King.

If they didn't though.. "Don't do that." Cybersprite said, snapping Patior out of his thoughts before he could even really lose himself in them.

"Hm?" He asked as his lusus/sprite poured him another cup of tea, "I can always tell when you're about to spiral your way down a mental staircase and work yourself into a lather." The robotic lusus said in his monotone, mechanical, and somehow still slightly amused sounding voice.

"Wasn't much I could think to do about it back before I was sprite, wasn't programmed for such things, but I could still always tell. You get this air about you whenever its coming on, a grave sort of feeling."

"Do I?" Patior questioned, "I never noticed.." "Well of course you didn't," His lusus chuckled, "You can't notice what your mind is letting off while you're lodged in it. Same reason that kismesis of yours is always so easy to work up into an emotional spiral. You two are perfect for each other honestly."

"Me and Aspico haven't been spades together in over a sweep." Patior corrected his lusus.

"I'm sure," Cybersprite said, his sarcasm somehow hearable through the mechanical voice, "And I'm sure your first act after winning the battle and entering the new world won't be to pin her down and go for a perfectly timed hate-snog.

"And I'm sure she wouldn't be expecting it and be prepared to do the same." He added, seeming almost smug over the fact that he could still make his ward blush.

* * *

Aspico parried the talons of her lusus with her rapier, driving her back with an elbow jab and backing up to take a defensive position with her blade; still unable to see her visually.

She had been blindfolded for this training with Harpysprite, the avian lusus wanting to make sure her soul sense was as sharp as her blade. Olive bloods were innate hunters, and she refused to let her ward get tripped up.

The sprite attacked from every direction. Never anything that Valtina wouldn't be able to heal-which wasn't saying much considering Valtina could heal death given the time-but to her satisfaction, Aspico blocked every strike.

No matter whether it was talons, wings, beak, or flung feathers, no matter what direction, what speed, or what technique she struck with, Aspico could sense, predict, and counter her.

She was so proud of her little olive, remembering their first training session together back when Aspico had only just finished pupating a day before. She'd been off balance and easily confused, weak and slow; only keeping up by relying on innate instincts. And look at her now.

Grinning to herself, she decided to test how well her little wriggler held up in the face of more targeted attacks, and began questioning her about Patior and how much she hated him as she attacked. Her soul had often been blinded by her own conflicted emotions. She couldn't let such conflicts cloud Aspico inside in this battle.

She was rather surprised by how well Aspico managed to focus, even as her entire face blushed a deep olive green as her lusus' comments became more and more suggestive.

* * *

Arvis and Java had decided to train together with Cuttersprite on LoBaV.

They had alchemized even stronger gear than what they were already using, Java creating brass knuckles that in addition to the rocket punches her originals were capable of, could also produce spikes and even contain the breath she had stolen like a magic relic.

Arvis' hooksword and hookshot were made stronger and stronger, able to time up and cut through enemies of nearly any size. Arvis had asked Java why she didn't have Pilotsprite join them for the sparring as they took turns fighting with Cutter and improving their skills, and she'd simply told him it was too hard.

Arvis wasn't altogether sure what she meant, but between that, and how quiet she'd been since returning from the denizen lair, the Page of Blood could only assume that something bad had happened to the sprite during the confrontation with Typheous.

He wanted to question what it was, but knew that it wasn't his place to ask about. He simply kept training with her; mentioning off hand that Pilotsprite would be proud of how far she'd come, prouder still of how far they would go in the days that followed.

He wasn't sure how much he had actually cheered her up, but it at least put a smile on her face for the time being and encouraged her to put a little more passion into her training.

Java was still broken up over what she had had to do to her beloved sprite, friend, and temporary lover, but she knew that if she spent her time mopping and wasn't ready for the final battle, than her sacrifice would have been for nothing.

She had to keep going, had to make sure Pilot would indeed be proud.

* * *

Dustine breathed a sigh of relief when Risura and his lusus returned to LoMaW.

Molesprite had taken the jade blood femboy up to Skaia to dig out the whole the Genesis Frog would need to go through. They'd spent most of their extended stretched out time training the Bard of Void's Rip ability so he would be ready when the time came to head up.

He would need to go up, get the hole dug with Rip, and come back down without being spotted. He'd managed it thanks to the fact that Rip, in its strongest form, could create a chain of void portals all at once that could act as essentially a bomb, shredding apart everything around and within the chain and taking it all in.

Risura had used this chain attack to dig out a whole to the center of the planet Skaia, and with his sprite's help made it back to Dustine's land safely; where he fully intended to spend the rest of his time cuddling his matesprit and nothing the fuck else until it was time to fight the final battle.

Neither of them needed to do any alchemy, their powers both fully unlocked and their primary source of combat; one using bare fists and the power of the void, the other channeling pure rage into a mace that had grown more powerful every moment it had been in its owner's hands.

Their sprites chatted politely as their respective players found a room in one of the lands for some alone time.

Both were confident they would be able to survive the battle that was to come, but just incase they didn't, they wanted their last moments to be spent together.

* * *

Lurabo was fluttering across LoLaS, letting her light grow and extend around her to the towns that had before been trapped in the darkness that the denizen had brought with her.

The light, no longer blocked by the denizen, spread through the darkness and lingered; allowing the consorts to use its luck, knowledge, and literal light to begin sorting things out across their planet. By the time the Black king battle was done and the session over, the consorts would likely have taken their planet back, having moved off the ladders altogether.

Granted, this would likely make the name of the land somewhat incongruous, but still.

Lurabo's thoughts halted as she sensed someone familiar approaching. She continued to fly normally, until her lusus was within slashing range with his tails.

Lurabo spun in mid-air, slamming her Arcane into his side and sending him flying back. Chimerasprite had evidently decided that if Lurabo had time to light up LoLaS, she had time to spar and train. She smiled, knowing that her lusus just wanted to help; and perhaps he really was doing so.

He'd been unable to spar with her for most of the journey, as at first it took him awhile to get used to moving around as a sprite, and then he had to wait for Lurabo to sort through her own issues such as the denizen and alchemizing. But now, he felt, was the perfect time for them to fight.

Lurabo seemed to agree, keeping her tarot cards in her inventory as she took a mid-air combat stance. She wanted to show her lusus how far she'd come.

* * *

Valtina took deep breaths to keep herself calm as she stood in the midsts of her sprite.

The living garden moved around her like a sentient labyrinth of vegetation that wished to attack her.

Her healing and her fighting were as good as they were ever going to be, Gardensprite seemed intent on making sure Valtina was up to snuff with her reaction time and alchemized weapons. She had the widest arsenal of any player in the session, and could swap between them at a moments notice.

Her sais, her spade knife, her sawvel, her drill-prongs, her gloves, her weed-killer, her sheers; all alchemized into as powerful as they could become without ceasing to be gardening tools altogether.

The vines, roots, leaves, berries, seeds, branches, and everything else Gardensprite could produce-which was quite a lot do to Valtina's excellent gardening skills-was launched, swung, lashed, and otherwise sent at her to attack. It was an onslaught, requiring Valtina to switch to different weapons, spinning on her heels, ducking, guarding, countering.

She was sweating and panting after only a few minutes, and her sprite intended to keep her at it for hours.

She knew it was just to help her, her beloved garden wanting only to help her grow as Valtina had done for it back before it had been a sentient creature, but it was extremely tiring still.

She supposed as the healer, it was remarkably important that she not let herself take much damage during the battle.

* * *

Mutosi wasn't sure what was wrong with her lusus.

The massive Scorpionsprite had been acting strange since she returned. Ever since she started working better with the others, her lusus had been acting as though there was something wrong with her.

She hadn't been talking much, which was strange considering the lusii had been so glad to be capable of verbally speaking with their wards when they'd first become sprites. Mutosi may have been slightly annoyed by how fussy her lusus had been up to now, but she didn't want her to stop caring about her altogether.

She was at least still willing to help Mutosi train, sparring with her so she could increase the power of her broom combat, bronze blooded beast control, and Witch of Hope powers. They planned to train for the entire day and a half, using the remaining time to rest up and be ready for the battle, but the scorpion lusus began to slow down more and more until they couldn't go on anymore.

"Alright, what's wrong?" Mutosi questioned, not wanting to keep going until she figured out what was happening." "I should have paid more attention," the lusus said in her warped, animalistic voice, "I shouldn't have let you do such a thing to yourself." "Do what?" Mutosi questioned her lusus, worried about her caretaker.

"Those powers of yours.. You used them on yourself, you changed who you are. You're not the same troll who I raised, not anymore.." Scorpionsprite poked at the sand with her stinger tail anxiously, "I knew it was going to happen it, I could feel it in the code being a sprite has flowing through me, but I couldn't make myself stop you..

"All those sweeps together, all down the train with a snap of your fingers. Might as well have done nothing for all the good I did. I don't claim to have been a perfect lusus, but I didn't think the troll I raised deserved to be erased from the world."

"I haven't been," Mutosi said, "I promise you. I'm still myself, I'm just.. Okay, so I changed myself. I made it so I could stop being borderline evil, but that doesn't mean I'm gone. I've just grown, changed, become better. I'm just the best version of the troll you used with the worse parts picked away." Mutosi told her with a smile, "I'm still me, even if the denizen seems to think otherwise. I'm just a better me."

Mutosi wasn't sure if she believed it herself, but her words seemed to have at least slightly calmed down her lusus, and they could continue their training.

* * *

Jeff couldn't do much training while he focused on keeping time from moving forward by too much.

He didn't need to of course, he'd technically already trained for years longer than everyone else in the session. All he really needed to do was alchemize.

His already powerful bat had been put through Hephaestus' forge, turning it into the even more powerful form; the Molten Master Measuring-Staff. Any baseball hit with this was likely to be sent into orbit, and any skull it collided with was likely to be reduced to a liquid.

He'd taken the rotted skull baseball and combined it with a lightweight metal and an enchanted dark magic rune he'd found buried in one of the steam caved of his land, creating the Brazen Basher's Blight Ball, a single baseball with enough density and decomposing magic within it to take down an army.

It only had one shot, so he had to make sure it didn't miss, and hit with as much strength as he could muster. But he would have to leave that for when the time came.

Jeff nearly lost control of his time powers that were holding back the timeline as he held back the gagging fit brought on by his own unintentional pun.


	38. Chapter 38

**Why yes, I was listening to a loop of Rex Duodecim Angelus while writing this, thanks for noticing XD**

* * *

"Is everyone ready?" Patior questioned, looking over the two teams.

The lines separating the villain and hero teams had dissolved already, and now they all stood together; all in the garb of their classpect.

Well, more or less, all the outfits having been either modified manually, alchemized with other things, or both to give each member a different look. Their skills and gear had been improved as far as it could go, or at least as far as they could go without risking destruction of the universe from the Reckoning.

"Seems so." Aspico said as she looked everyone over, sensing no trepidation within the team.

"Let's hurry this along, meteors aren't gonna wait for us all day." Jeff said with a chuckle, levitating up and heading towards the sky. The rest of the team followed after him, soon all of them moving towards Skaia through the blackness of space between Skaia and Prospit.

How they were able to survive the depth of space with nought but their own bodies, none of them knew. The best guess was that it was likely something to do with their god tier status, but even that was just a guess.

They continued through the darkness towards the chessboard planet of Skaia. No matter where they landed, the army they would be having to fight would be equally prepared for them, unless they landed across the planet, which would just be inefficient.

They touched down together, everyone steeling themselves as they looked out over what laid before them.

The final boss and the target of this mission was so massive as to be seen all the way from the opposite end of the battlefield.

The Black King was… a monster.

The players had of course seen the form their prototyping had granted of course in the form of the Queen, but the Queens at least remained of normal size; as opposed to the King, who stood roughly two hundred feet tall by Furlok's estimate, and even that was massively lowballing it. If they were being honest with themselves, the final boss of their game probably hovered somewhere closer to four or five hundred feet tall.

Not the tallest of kaiju they'd ever seen. Ghidorah for example would be around his height if not slightly taller, and Kroll from Doctor Who would have towered over him.

The difference being that they didn't have to fight Ghidorah or Kroll, and looking at the amalgamated horror at the far end of the battlefield, the group would likely have voted to fight both of them rather than this.

He had no legs for one this, his lower half ending in a thick series of roots that extended into the ground around him and then into the miniature forest around him, essentially fusing him with the terrain itself.

Vines and thorns and plants of every kind that Valtina had once grown all tangled together in a dense cluster that extended for thirty feet in every direction around the king.

His main body was mostly comprised of a massive turtle-like shell that appeared to have armored, mechanical plating; complete with missile launchers at the shoulders.

Extending out the back was one massive tail that split into three; two long hook tails from Lurabo's chimerical lusus on either side of the massive scorpion-like tail of Mutosi's lusus. It had six arms stretching out from its shell body. All six were feathered like harpy wings, but each with different endings.

One ended in a scorpion pincer claw, one in long pointed mole claws, one in long curved gauntlet claws, one in a humanoid looking hand gripping a massive tommy gun that was probably large enough to technically qualify as anti-aircraft weaponry, one ended in a metallic ape-like hand with the holes of a gatling gun in its palm, and lastly was an arm normal for the Black King; gripping his massive scepter.

Jutting from the back of his shelled back were two long jet plane like wings, only having been enhanced by the robotic features.

The most prominent feature to his face was the massive alligator mouth and the fangs therein; though at the end were two massive rodent teeth that, at this size, looked somehow more dangerous than the gater teeth.

One of his eyes glowed red from the cybernetic enhancements within, and his entire face was slathered in makeup that gave him the look of a demented clown.

The twelve players looked up at the beast their individual prototyping choices had combined to create, suddenly feeling infinitely less confident in themselves than they had only moments ago when they had arrived to do battle with the beast.

And the King wasn't even the only thing to worry about. There was an entire, actual, literal army in between him and the team of god tiers. All Derites, and many in kind, ranging from just below normal human/troll size up to thirteen feet high.

Grunts, guards, pawns, the only difference between them being their level of armor it seemed, assassins with their crossbows and rifles, casters with spellbooks and bishops with poleaxes, rooks looking like literal castle towers brought to life as berserk chargers, knights in the form of horse and centaur-like beasts dashing across the ground and through the air around the warships that had managed to make it to Skaia before Risura, Brendon, and Dustine had been able to trash their equipment.

As powerful as they had all gotten, they were starting to see just power powerful their foes were as well now that it was all laid out in front of them.

To everyone's surprise, it was Arvis who made the first move, charging forward with his New Links ability already active. His hookshot fired into the eye of a rook, pulling him towards the behemoth; letting him cut its head clean off with his hook sword with the momentum.

He allowed it to carry him forward, landing several slashing attacks on the closest enemies to the group.

Following Arvis, the rest of the group all charged with him, beginning to lay into the first wave of Dersite troops.

Perhaps so as not to break the theme, the majority of the non-chess related Dersite soldiers were what comprised the majority of the first wave.

Dustine's mace collided with the hammer of a Guard, Furlok and Valtina speed blitzing the Grunts. Lurabo had drawn the Knight of Pentacles to keep the Casters at bay way while Risura and Aspico took them out.

Patior had fallen back to start sniping out the Assassins, Mutosi focusing the fire of her Hope Bend onto the warships before they could begin opening fire on the group.

Java and Jeff were up in the air, driving brass knuckles and baseball bat into any enemies who were using harpy or jet wings to knock them from the sky.

Java drained an entire flock of winged guards of their breath, causing them to land in a pile on the ground right in the middle of the bloody murder canyon that was being dug out by Brendon and Arvis; Dustine not far behind with Risura gaining ground as well.

Valtina grumbled at the sight of this, pulling her sai out of the Derse guard's shoulder and slamming the side of her shovel into a Pawn's head to catch up with them. She felt back leaving more of the attacking to Furlok as she advanced, but she didn't want the heavy hitters to head forward without their healer.

Lurabo focused her Light through the Arcane and cast it over the fic of them as a boon to protect them from whatever might come their way.

Patior was busy Processing, finding the proper targets to create chain reactions among the Derse troops; shooting out the ede of a warship in such a way so the bullet punched through and impacted the pilot of the warship behind it, causing both to crash into the two warships beneath them and bring all four onto the Rook batalion on the ground.

Aspico was moving forward with her eyes completely closed and covered by her hood, letting her soul sense and soul predictions guide her and her rapier.

The blade slid through the air as she moved gracefully through the ranks, slitting throats, piercing hearts, cutting limbs, and moving forward.

Furlok's bladed paint set gave anyone within a three foot radius of her a similar role in life to the fruit within a blender, all minced up within moments as she moved forward.

She took a bullet to the hip from an Assassin who probably felt very smug in the two seconds between his shot landing and Patior's impacting his skull.

Jeff paused time around Furlok, dropping to the ground and picking her up princess style-something that every member of the team would individually learn they should never bring up-and carrying her both across the field and across time to Valtina a few minutes later.

In the meantime, Lurabo crossed her Arcane with Mutosi's broom, combining the magical blast from the former with the intense focused hope power stored in the second, allowing it to fire across a wide range and eliminate a massive regiment of Knights who'd been frozen in place by Mutosi's animal control; wiping them all out in a matter of moments.

Java flew down, driving her brass knuckles into the back of a Rook's head, then kicking off of him as the massive fist of solid wind her powers had created came down on top and finished the job.

Up ahead, Valtina was healing all four of their brutes as they plowed through the ranks of the heavier enemies.

Arvis was flying through the enemies with his hooks, but Brendon was doing the most damage by virtue of having AIO on his side; his axe leaving pillars of fire when swung, his shotgun blasting away tens of enemies at once, and his death bringers acting as focused explosives when they hit.

Valtina was essentially having to walk backwards to prevent attacks from behind as well as heal, and drove her drill shears into the back of a Knight that had thought he'd try and get a sneak attack.

Jeff appeared through time and set Furlok down to be healed; doing the same for an Arvis with a broken arm, a paralyzed Mutosi, and a fully dead Patior, who looked to have been ripped clean in two. He was in a hurry, never saying what precisely had caused each wound, but kept coming back more and more; to the point that he himself ended up needing healing at one point.

Apparently, things were not going to go very well in a few moments. It didn't take much effort to figure out why.

The Black King continued to loom ominously in the distance, not moving or attacking yet. Just watching, waiting, his meteors already falling towards the outskirts of the battlefield even without him having fully cast his powerful Reckoning ability yet.

Furlok side-stepped a Rook's punch, grabbing onto his massive wrist and beginning to steal his size from him.

The stone castle soldier shrunk down as the teal blooded troll rose up; to the point that Furlok was able to stomp the Rook into grist and then lock arms with next Rook, draining him as well and growing larger; after which she grabbed two more, holding them up by their arms and beginning to drain them as well.

Lurabo's playing cards cut through the Pawns like nothing, the blasts of her Arcane napalming the area and her telekinesis turning the bladed cards into a twister of damage around her as she moved forward.

She drew from her tarot again, taking out the Knight and Page of Swords. She felt it would be a horrid missed opportunity if she applied the power they brought, a boon of strength/bravery/cleverness and grace/dexterity respectively, on anyone other than Dustine and Arvis.

Both of them immediately began to glow, Dustine's strikes-already strong enough to flatten the armored bishops and crack the ground beneath them-growing much stronger, Arvis' movements-already hard to keep track of let alone dodge or counter-growing much more agile. Lurabo decided to risk drawing another card, only for it to vanish in a flash of red and spinning gears.

Evidently Jeff had decided she didn't that card yet. She didn't mind, switching back to her Arcane and opening a whole in her blade tornado to fire.

Speaking of the Heir of Time, he was currently driving his bat into the skull of a Caster who'd been about to cast a death spell on Aspico, who'd been disarmed for all of three seconds (she'd thrown her rapier into the chest of a nearby bishop to kill them).

Looking around, he spotted another thing out of place in time and acted accordingly.

Java was turned to look at Arvis.

She could see how nervous he was getting despite how well he was doing; more so than any of the others. The card had helped, but it was more a skill enhancer than it was anything to help with mental state.

As powerful as he had become over the course of the game, and as proud as Java especially was of him, he just wasn't built for battle on this scale.

At least… not mentally.

According to Aspico and Patior, Pages like Arvis were meant to have the most power of any other class, but couldn't access their ultimate powers just on whim.

In a moment of understanding, Java knew exactly what to do with the breath she had taken from Pilotsprite.

She grabbed Arvis and pulled him close, planting her lips on him for a deep, passionate kiss; one that allowed all the breath Java had stolen to flow from her into him, overcharging him with the freedom to change the world with the powers he had.

Arvis had already begun to glow crimson even before Java pulled back from the kiss, an intense power beginning to build up within and around him. Jeff looked over, from where he stood atop a warship, seeing the Page of Blood beginning to power up.

He clicked his tongue, wishing Java had had a little more patience. He reeled back and slammed his bat into the warship; denting the top and sending the entire thing careening towards the ground-where it impacted Risura's fist and was cast to the void.

Jeff remained in the air, floating for a second or two before his entire being turned red, spinning gear and clock symbols replacing his form as he faded into and became the timeline. From within the flow of time, Jeff grabbed the powering up Page and cast him into the future.

They would need his power, but they would need it later. Wasting it now would surely lead to their destruction.

Having sorted this temporal anomaly out, Jeff scanned the skies, where he saw that Mutosi was in the air now, bronze brown wings fluttering to keep her up as she used her Test of Faith power; a widespread attack, sending all of the Dersite soldiers into a mad lather to attack only each other. They were reduced to a petty riot now; albeit one spread out across an entire active warzone.

This done, the first attack on the Black King himself was made; though technically it was a tie between Brendon and Patior; ironically enough considering they were the original team leaders.

Patior's sniper bullet hit one side of the body the same instant as the death bringer Brendon had thrown. Jeff could confirm that it had in fact been the same instant; not that it mattered.

Patior's bullets had, even in this fight, one shot enemies that could have been bosses unto themselves, as had Brendon's death bringers.

So it was disquieting just how much nothing their attacks seemed to do to the King, the Dersite monarch's only reaction being a raising of his scepter to acknowledge that he was aware they were there; and consequently to make the meteors overhead fall faster.

All the players, with the exception of Arvis who had yet to appear out of the time stream, converged on the Black King together.

They'd hoped to avoid the tangled maze of foliage his lower half was creating in all directions by flying overhead, but the moment they crossed its threshold the vines and roots sprung up and latched onto them, dragging them down into the forest below.

This went better for some than others. Aspico's rapier wasn't great for escaping vine traps (though thankfully the Black King's soul flowed through every inch of the planets and allowed Aspico to sense and anticipate each movement to avoid any further damage) and Java wasn't great in tight spaces; nor was Jeff, who needed focus to travel through time; focus being difficult to maintain whilst bound in vines.

Brendon though, he was in his element. His axe cut through even the thickest of the plants as though there was nothing there, sending arcs of flame in all directions as it did. Risura vanished from the world with Forget Me Not to sneak through the foliage, Dustine simply breaking through the roots and death marching forward in an aura haze of his own rage.

Valtina was of course laying waste to all in her path within the forest, having decided that this garden needed a bit of pruning it seemed.

Furlok, currently verging on the size of a titan and still dwarfed by the Black King, was being Gulliver's Travels-ed by the roots.

Mutosi's rays of hope and venom filled broom strikes kept the plants at bay, Lurabo freeing herself with a draw from her deck; Nine of Swords, which caused the forest in a massive radius around her to fall to ruin, wasting away and, quite by chance, freeing Patior.

Patior immediately took aim with his sniper rifle to fire at the Black King's head.

He managed to fire a shot that punched right through the King's long maw; though through the scope, he could see that his lusus may have been just as bad for the battle as Valtina's garden.

In addition to the missiles, gatling guns, and indeed the laser eye that reduced Patior to a pile of smoldering ash the moment after he noticed it, the mechanical stem cells within the Black King would repair any damage they did.

Patior had designed them himself to keep his lusus safe, their only weakness being that if a limb was completely disconnected it would take several hours to be re-grown rather than the few seconds any wounds would need to be heeled.

Valtina looked around at the death being caused by the Black King, and closed her eyes to focus; thankfully made possible by Risura using Rip to chain void hole a massive section of the forest away.

She concentrated her power into a massive heal pulse, reviving (and reconstituting) Patior; along with Java and Dustine-who'd been killed by the gun fire-and Brendon who wasn't killed by the shoulder missiles thanks to his Death Destroyer ability, but was only alive by technicality until Valtina healed the damage.

The moment he was though, he leapt from the ground, rocketing out of the forest in a spinning slash with his axe to avoid being dragged back under. He flew up to be level with the Black King, firing both barrels from his shotgun at him.

The damage from it was healed almost instantly as the scorpion hand reached out, attempting to crush him; the triple tail doing a massive sweep through the back of the forest and sending Dustine flying while the laser eye did a powerful scan across the front in an attempt to kill anything there.

Brendon grit his teeth as he held the Scorpion claw from shutting, even as he was riddled with bullets from the tommy gun hand. He spat up blood, and held firm until Patior managed to fire a bullet through the wrist of the scorpion hand. It was healed within seconds, but it have Brendon time to fly out of the grip.

He attacked twice in rapid succession, manifesting two doom bringers and throwing both of them, one into the tommy gun hand, the other into the Black King's face. The massive tommy gun-and the hand holding it-were incinerated, as was the alligator jaw.

Both healed back almost instantly, though the gun couldn't be healed, leaving the hand unarmed. Brendon flew down, dragging his axe along the King's front in an attempt to cut through the shell.

He barely scratched it, but managed to leave a trail of fire that rapidly spread across the King. Brendon was able to throw another doom bringer, aiming for the center of the shell to weaken it, before the laser eye annihilated him.

Lurabo captured all the dust of him with her telekinesis and a stunning amount of luck, bringing every particle down to Valtina to be healed. The massive unarmed hand was being brought down towards them in a fist to kill the healer before she could do any proper healing.

 **Fraymotif: Destruction (Void) + Exploitation (Rage) = Rage Against the Dark.**

Dustine and Risura both impacted the hand before it could impact the ground, hitting it with such force it was knocked back and seemed to almost evaporate off of the King.

As this happened, Furlok finally tore her way free of the roots, though kept them in hand; holding what looked like a few acres worth of plant that had been ripped free from the forest sprouting from the King.

As she approached, the laser eye still charging for another use, the two clawed hands swung at her.

Furlok held her ground, keeping the ripped up greenier on her as she drew her bladed paint brushes and managed to just barely block scissor slash with them, forcing both hands back and even shearing through the claws.

They'd need time to regenerate, and the King switched to one of his more powerful, metallic fists. As it was sent at her, gatling gun already spinning up to begin firing at her, Furlok stole all the size from the plant life; shrinking them down to nothing as she grew to a size that nearly matched the King himself.

Nearly.

She was still short by comparison; if *short* could even legitimately be used to describe her while she was roughly the size of two Cloverfield monsters stacked on top of each other. She got his fist, her increased size making it easy to do with one hand while the other gripped her now brush, also larger in size from what she'd stolen.

The King began to fire from the gatling gun; every bullet stopping against Furlok's palm and

falling harmlessly towards the ground; the Thief of Space taking away their speed and velocity.

Using the stolen bullet speed (several hundred times bullet speed actually considering she'd stolen from at least five hundred bullets in the few seconds he'd been firing), Furlok moved in what must have looked to the others like a flash-step teleportation; moving so fast that she avoid the already fired light speed laser eye; removing said laser eye from the equation with a massive raser paint brush through the eye.

The triple tail reared up behind the King, stabbing through Furlok.

She gasped in pain as the two hook tails dug out things that were typically meant to be kept in, the scorpion tail just repeatedly jamming in and out to envenomate her as much as possible.

She released the extra size more out of not being able to maintain it while in that much pain and began falling to the ground. Jeff slowed time for her to a crawl while speeding up time for Valtina, allowing her to get close to Furlok and heal her as fast as possible.

Risura, Brendon, Patior, and Dustine would keep the arms busy while he and Valtina took care of the forest below. They couldn't slowly and patiently destroy each individual plant. Even if they had the patience and power, they regrew too fast.

To Valtina suggested they focus on the source. Jeff slowed time to as near nothing as possible for the roots connecting the forest to the Black King's body to slow the regen down as much as he could.

Valtina prepared her next attack-bathing in Lurabo's Light as she did so, while Jeff made the target a little easier for her; throwing his Blight ball into the air and swinging his Molten Measuring-Staff with perhaps the most powerful home run swing he would ever manage in this or any timeline; as he was manipulating time itself to empower the strike, drawing upon the strength of alternate versions of himself.

The cursed ball hit the roots with enough force to be wedged several feet into the roots with no aid from the rot magic; all of which was released in a massive detonation of corrosive energy, weakening the entire lower half of the boss monster.

Seeing this, and literally slowing with the Light Valtina had bestowed her, the Sylph of Life charged forward at max speed (critical on speed charge).

She had her Sawvel in one hand, her drill shears in the other (critical on dual wield) and leapt at the weakened roots with a spinning trajectory to essentially turn herself into a living buzzsaw (critical on spinning strike). She cleaned through the weakening roots; burning out both weapons in the process and needing to switch to her spade knife and sai. Lurabo made sure the job was finished with a burst of telekinesis that fully separated Black King from the roots.

While he was no longer attached to or in control of the monster forest, that did unfortunately make life off with his jet wings possible; and the Black King immediately became a flying enemy; one spewing missiles in every direction.

 **Fraymotif: Understanding (Mind) + Allocation (Breath)/ Active by Passive = Clear Forecast.**

Java had managed to take the breath out of the last of the Dersite soldiers still standing elsewhere on the field.

Even with all of them together there wasn't enough to match the breath that had been within Pilotsprite; but she didn't want to think about that at the moment.

Patior was able to use his Mind powers to predict the flight trajectory of the Black King, and essentially act as her navigational system as she the Breath she'd stolen wrapped around her fists, becoming massive gauntlets rather than just brass knuckles.

She flew directly at the Black King, their forces colliding to more or less lock each other in place. Risura exited his Forget Me Not stealth mode and drove a fist into massive jaw of the Black King, using Rip to stretch void holes out across the alligator mouth and essentially rip if by force off.

This ended up leaving both of Java and Risura in prime gatling gun range though, and soon both of them were reduced to bloody messes on the ground below.

Dustine watched as it happened; and even knowing that Valtina would heal them, even seeing her in the process of doing it, he was too riled up by the sight of it; purple rage energy extending in several feet around him, boiling the earth where his feet touched as he charged the Black King; not even noticing the hail of bullets that collided with him.

He launched himself at the King, only able to land three strikes before the pain and the damage was too much; but they were powerful strikes.

The first ripped the metallic arm clean from the King's body, the second send cracks all across the central shell and allowed Dustine to run along it to get behind the King to land his third strike; utterling ruining the tail.

He landed in a painful, actually alive (if it could be called that) heap on the ground that Valtina would have to heal next. Unfortunately, the Black King was still airborne and firing missiles.

Fortunately, Aspico, Mutosi and Lurabo were in position to counter this, all three bathed in bright light and armed with the added effect of the Six of Swords, 3 of Wands, and 3 of Cups.

Aspico, acting purely on the flow of emotion and soul power, allowed Lurabo to launch her through the air with her telekinesis, then direct herself down, using her rapier to cleave clean through the unarmed hand that had once held a tommy gun, slashing rapidly to fend off the broken claws of the two formerly fully clawed hands as she landed on the Black King's shoulder.

She drove her blade into the shoulder and began charging across to the other; causing detonations of the missiles within said shoulders that ruined the mechanisms; preventing further explosions.

Aspico jumped from the shoulders before said detonations took place, raking her blade down the back of the shell and leaving it just in time to avoid another of Brendon's death bringer orbs; a much bigger one this time, nearly big enough to look like a medicine ball from the Black King's perspective.

The King turned to see who had attacked him; giving Lurabo and Mutosi their moment.

The former compressed as much Light and telekinetic force into her Arcane as possible before firing the blast of magic, the latter simply using her broom to direct raw hope energy in the form of a blast. The two beam attacks shot through the King's two jet wings, destroying them completely and causing the Black King to crash into the ground.

He righted himself disappointing quick, repurposing the hands with severed blades to hold himself up. With an ungodly roar that shook the ground metaphorically, he slammed his enormous scepter down and shook the ground literally.

The impact send a visible shockwave headed for Lurabo and Mutosi, one they would not be able to avoid. As they were crushed to death, the Black King raised his scepter high into the air, letting its glow signal the falling of the more powerful meteors.

The players had been so focused on the fight they'd paid no heed at all to the Black King's Reckoning; but the meteors were coming, boulders wreathed in flame falling on Skaia like bullets from god, some so large as to be considered mountains rather than stones.

At the very least, they at least had a plan for this.

 **Fraymotif: Destructionx2 (Doom+Void) = Product Through Raze.**

As Risura and Brendon connected their powers, the two destroyers ironically created the best defense; a massive shadowy barrier around the battlefield that caused each meteor to fade into nothingness as it passed through it, rendering the Reckoning moot.

For the moment at least. The barrier was protecting them, not Skaia itself, which could still be damaged.

The Black King let out another ungodly roar; this one sounding unsettlingly like laughter. The ruinous mess of its jaw was giving the clown like face and even more demonic look as it began to flat all of its arms, the harpy wings allowing it to return to the air again. It it reached the barrier, a single strike from the scepter might be enough to scatter it; allowing the meteors to destroy the players…

Thankfully, it was at that moment that the card Lurabo had drawn earlier appeared in her hands again.

Judgement or Rejuvenation. The card's power of renewal, rebirth, promotion, and awakening of hidden abilities flowed through her, triggering a gene that had laid hidden away in her DNA. Lurabo had never been a full psionic.

She wasn't sure if all yellow bloods were meant to, or if it was normal for a yellow blood to be born non-psionic.

But from this moment forward, it wouldn't matter anymore. Her vision faded into red and blue and telekinesis and psychokinesis flooded together in her mind, releasing a massive twin blast of psionic lasers from her eyes.

The beam impacted the Black King, causing the cracks that had begun healing on his shell to reform and deepen. The King swung around counting the beam with his scepter and a strange energy that emanated from the clown-like face.

Whatever it was, it seemed to be matching the psionic powerfuls and even overwhelming them. And then the second thing that Jeff had hidden in time re-appeared in another blast of red spinning gears; Arvis, fully powered up in a orb of blood red energy that was swelling and extending further as he appeared behind the Black King.

 _Hemo-Imperium._

The power extended like a crimson supernova, locking every inch of the Black King in binding chains that pulled him back to the ground as Lurabo continued to focus her psionic blasts at him.

This to proved to only be a stalling tactic, the chains snapping a rush of power searched from the Black King, expanding in all directions and sending shockwaves across all of them.

One by one, the lethal attack; which sounded upsettingly like a laugh, killed the players.

Only two survived; Bredon with the aid of Death's Destroyer, and Valtina with the aid of Lurbo's Light, which had placed her just outside of the kill radius by nought by a few inches.

She'd still been knocked out though, and with Risura dead, the barrier faded; leaving the battlefield exposed to the Reckoning. Brendon stood alone, seeing the red hell Skaia had become from the meteor attacks.

Thankfully no lethally large ones were heading for him at the moment, but it still wasn't the best of circumstances. Brendon couldn't do this alone.

But maybe.. He didn't have to.

Brendon looked around, seeing a dead indego blood only a few feet away from where he himself had landed.

As he approached, he remembered something else Aspico had discovered about the game.

God tiers, it seems, are incapable of standard coincidental death.

Unless their death is Just-meaning they had committed some atrocity before being killed-or Heroic-meaning they were in some way involved in deeds that could be construed as heroic before their passing-they will simply return to life.

Unfortunately, this is of little help in most battles, as any fight of note (be it against another player, denizen, or the King) will by default be either Just or Heroic. This, it seems, is fate.

But Brendon could defy fate, he could destroy the rules.

Power circulating around him, he extended it to Patior. Above him, a symbol of a clock with its hand swung to the right; a symbol of a heroic death, was seen. Said symbol was slowly covered by the spiked skull of the Doom aspect, and then shattered entirely.

Patior sat bolt upright a moment after, gasping for breath and looking around. Brendon took his hand and helped him to his feet.

They looked around, seeing it was just them now. Just them and King, who seemed content waiting for the meteors to finish them off; which was sure to happen if this battle wasn't ended soon.

Their weapons and powers alone wouldn't do any good. They needed something greater than before. They turned to each other and nodded, locking arms to hopefully end this battle and save their friends.

 **Fraymotif: Destruction (Doom)+Understand X Activex2 = Dual Salvo.**

The power of their aspects radiated around the two of them, dark green mixing with light blue around them. There was a flash of light, where the two had been standing before, now there was only one.

It appeared as Brendon had, but with Patior's long, deep blue wings, and both aspect symbols flashing in his eyes. He took off from the ground in the Black King's direction, axe in hand and shotgun at his side.

He could see the attacks before they happened, his senses heightened, sensing destructive forces and feeling the logical flow of events around him, allowing him to move with them and follow them towards the most logical, and destructive path.

He flew out of the way of a pincer hand, dashing back towards it to avoid being crushed by the scepter and consequently sever the clawed hand with a single slash of his axe.

The fire trailed up the King's arm towards his body, the King roaring in pain and raising his scepter to call the meteors down faster.

Looking up, Brendon held out a hand and send a Doom Bringer into the sky. From there, it burst; a cluster bomb that released dozens of smaller doom bringers into the sky to counter the meteors for just a bit longer.

Brendon flew up high, axe burning as bright as as possible as he launched himself like a spinning blade down at the Black King, two fast and powerful to be stopped. 'Brendon slashed through the two arms that were put up to block the attack and raked his axe down the body of the beast; the already weakened shell finally giving to the force of the attack.

Even before the attack had finished the body was already starting to repair itself, thousands of tiny machine single cells moving to heal the damage the attack had done. But this had not been the attack.

This had merely been to get into place. Brendon held up his shotgun, firing a single, powerful, intensely glowing shot away from where he stood in the crevice the slash had dug into the Black King.

Far off from the King, but just close enough, the glow dispersed; revealing that the shot had actually been Patior himself; their combo move nearing its conclusion.

He appeared with his sniper rifle already trained on its target, and fired before his vision had even returned. His bullet impacted not the King, but his scepter; destroying it in a single charged shot.

And with that, the battle was over. No scepter, no powers.

The King, was returned to his normal form, no stronger than the Pawns he commanded; but covered in wounds that could not be survived; both legs and right arm cut from his body, back and front burned and cut to ribbons, one eye gouged out, with a massive gash stretching from shoulder down to the hip on his left side.

Looking up at the meteors of his Reckoning slowly ceasing to rain down, the Black King of Derse breathed his final breath.

* * *

Valtina had healed the others up, her Sylph of Life abilities making it trivial once she returned to consciousness.

One by one the players returned to life, and as they did, they all saw the new gate that had appeared where the Black King had been at the start of the battle.

It looked the same as the gates that took them to and from their lands, if much bigger. When everyone was alive and conscious, they began to make their way towards the gate.

They passed through it, appearing on a circular platform with enough space for all of them. There was what looked like a hologram of a door shape at the edge, red and with no door handle. Their sprites were hovering above them, and looking down, they could see Skaia and the rest of the planets orbiting it.

"What now?" Mutosi asked.

"Now, we wait, and watch." Patior said, indicating down at Furlok's planet. Though none of them could see it from this distance, the Forge was ignited as it finished burning through the Queen rings.

This done, it erupted like any volcano would; though with significantly more power. The tadpole Furlok's breeding had brought about was launched into the sky and towards Skaia, slowly seeming to grow and shift into a frog as it flew down the hole Risura had carved out of the ground and towards the center.

While this process had looked to the players like little more but a point of light shooting up to Skaia, they could all see the cracks spreading across the chessboard planet as though it were a massive egg; which may well have been an apt metaphor considering what followed. In a burst of light, Skaia was blasted apart, the massive being containing the universe emerging.

The Genesis Frog, a vast amphibian containing an entire world…

The players all looked at it in awe for a few moments, even Patior's logical mind rendered dumbfounded by the sight.

Eventually, they noticed that the door was no longer red, having turned white. A glass orb like doorknob radiating energy had appeared on the door. They could officially pass through into their new world…

They approached together, but soon Brendon realized he was the only one who'd gone all the way up to the door.

He had only been the leader of one of the two teams, but he had been the first one to enter the game in full. It seems the others had felt that if anyone deserved to open the door, it was him.

He reached out slowly, his hand tingling where the energy touched it…

 _THANKS FOR PLAYING_

The words hovered in the sky next to the sun, acting as a message to the players as they gazed up at it.

"Incredible.." Aspico said softly as she looked over the landscape. At the moment they appeared to be on a cliff overlooking an ocean, more land off in the distance with lush greenery (as well as odd blue plantlife that stood out as well) across it.

"So.. what do we do now?" Lurabo asked.

"I guess I'm up." Jeff said, cracking his knuckles and taking Consortsprite and Lurabo with him before entering the flow of time. The players watched as the land at the base of the mountain changed, becoming populated; cultivated even.

It was like the land was one fast forward as a new race of consorts, humans, and trolls-the former from the sprite and the latter two from Lurabo's cards no doubt-spread across the area, going from tribal all the way up to where they'd been when the twelve of them had entered the game, that way they could help society go forward even further before the next session inevitably came and went.

They were the new gods of this land it seemed, and their struggles within the game were over.

There was nothing left for them to do but rest, and enjoy their reward.

* * *

Some time had passed since the twelve gods had begun exploring their realm.

Furlok and Brendon had gone off with Lurabo to explore the farthest off of the land, within caves and above mountains, underwater and into the deepest forests.

And exploring the potential of Lurabo's new psionic powers. Valtina spend most of her time around the core civilization to tend to the people and nature around them. Jeff tended to remain in the time stream; seeming to take his job as a god of this land quite seriously.

They saw him still of course, but they were never sure when they were seeing him. Patior and Aspico also stayed with society to make sure the people of their world never went too far in either moral direction, counterbalancing each other.

Mutosi helped of course, though she'd found a new passion in just studying culture generally.

The trolls, humans, and consorts weren't the only society on this land, and she was curious about them all. Dustine and Risura were traveling like Brendon and Furlok; though they were doing so in much calmer locations for each others' sakes.

Java and Arvis were doing something similar as well, acting as a sort of midpoint between the two extremes. It's not like they were unconnected now, Arvis wouldn't allow something like that. Brendon and Lurabo had to come by to visit their moirales of course, and Jeff was fond of everyone.

Typically they'd see each other once every few days honestly, it's just that they all had their own things to look into. Jeff would always come back with some new temporal tale, Brendon and Furlok with a story of some new dangerous location Lurabo had approved for them to fight in.

Patior would show off the new tech he'd invented, Aspico the stories she'd gotten into writing, etc. The first real big point of contentious that got brought up was about a week into enjoying their new world; when Arvis realized that Java wasn't.

Not as much as he'd have expected anyway. He realized now when he found her trying, futiley, to communicate with the husk of Pilotsprite that they had brought one more issue through into their new world. He got Java to come out with what she had done to Pilotsprite to the others.

"I didn't have a choice," Java said, trying to justify herself to the others despite none of them having judged her or even given her a judgemental look, "It's what the denizen of my land had me do to get the grist, and it was where the Breath I gave to Arvis during the battle came from.

"I know it was necessary, but I.. I still feel bad about it." She admitted, looking down to hide her watering eyes from the others, "She was so good to me.."

"Why didn't you tell us?" Aspico questioned.

"It hurt too much to talk about.. I didn't want to deal with this anymore than I had to.." Java said miserably. The room was silent for a few moments before Brendon decided to say what all of them but Java were thinking, "J, you do realized there's like ten different ways we could have brought her back right?"

"W-what?" Java questioned.

"I can turn Hope power into other kinds of energy," Mutosi said, "Like, for example, that breathy stuff. I'm sure she's got a lot, but there's a lot of big beasts we could have taken from."

"Like a Horror-Terror," Risura said, "Which I can summon into my body at will."

"And if that was too dangerous, I've got a few different cards that could have restored her."

"I could find some extra breath for you to put in her from an alt timeline," Jeff added.

"A Fraymotif between the two of us might restore her as well." Valtina said.

"I literally destroy Doom, fate, and sacrifice," Brendon said, "There's a decant chance I could literally smack her back to normal."

"See?" Arvis said, "Java, just because you're a breath player doesn't mean you have to just drift off and completely untether from everything. You need to remember that. And if you ever forget," Arvis used his New Links ability, a symbolic series of red threads spreading out and connecting the group.

Java smiled at this, realizing that, like Patior had, and Arvis had before him, she'd not been looking at the whole picture. She gave Arvis a hug, and a deep loving kiss to boot, then gave Lurabo a nod. She closed her eyes, focusing all of her luck into the next draw from her tarot deck.

She drew the Six of Cups, reawakening the person trapped within the husk that was Pilotsprite. The color returned to her face as she began to blink, wincing as though suffering from a headache.

"Fucking hell, what the.." She looked around, seeming unsure where she was, and likely just as unsure about why Java proceeded to tackle-hug her to the ground.

* * *

 **And that's all she wrote! I'll be honest, I wasn't sure I'd make it this far ^^U the lack of response, like, any response at all, around the middle kind of killed my enthusiasm to write more.**

 **But I kept going, half because of determination and half because of the few of you who did decide to leave reviews (looking at you guy who recognized the name of the horror-terror and immediately understood the situation XD), and now here we are. For those of you who didn't, it's not bad or anything not to, but reviews are kind of the only thing that give me motivation to write XD**

 **For the record, yes, there is a canon series of lemons to serve as the celebration here at the end, but in keeping with the theming of things, they've been put into Sinful's Drabbles, so feel free to pop over there and read them/leave reviews if you're into lemons XD**

 **So, to anyone still reading at this juncture, what did you think? Like, of anything/everything? Classpect choices, land and ability ideas, character development, battles, etc? Did I do any good? Would it be a good idea for me to attempt a less smut focused story in future or should I stick to the lemons? If I were to do a story about a Lord and Muse, what would you want the aspects to be, and what are your favorite classpects?**

 **I am sinful by nature with no malicious intent, and I'll see you all next time!**


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